


Ghostly Bonds

by sonicgirl313



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Beyond Two Souls - Game, F/M, Original Show Concept, Telepathic Bond
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2017-07-11
Packaged: 2018-11-30 21:59:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 29,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11472513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sonicgirl313/pseuds/sonicgirl313
Summary: Sam's entire life is changed when she meets a boy named Danny Fenton. Not only does she learn about his ghost powers, but they also learn that they share a telepathic connection with each other. Though with ghosts planning to eliminate them, Sam and Danny must band together and fight against all odds. Based on Beyond Two Souls and Butch Hartman's original concept idea. AU





	1. Snowball Fight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had this story up on fanfiction.net for quite some time. But since I recently started working on it again, I figured I could post it here as well.

Chapter 1

_Hi, my name is Samantha Manson, but I prefer Sam. There's a lot of things I can say about my life, but that it is simple and normal is definitely not one of those things. Everyone else usually worries about finding jobs or falling in love, but not me. I had a special gift that only few have. It's a long story, so I might as well start from the beginning ..._

A young girl around the age of five was sitting on the couch, watching the snow that fell upon Amity Park. She let out a deep sigh, her purple eyes focused on the snowflakes that slowly descended to the ground. She pushed her black hair behind her ear as she breathed on the window, causing it to fog up.

"Samantha dear, you can't just sit and stare at the window all day." a cheery voice said.

"Mom, I told you I want to be called Sam." the girl whined as she turned around to face her mother.

Her mother's name was Pamela and she was a red-haired woman wearing a pink dress and a white apron. She smiled cheerfully as she chopped up some vegetables, preparing them so she could serve it up for dinner.

"Oh Samantha, you're so adorable whenever you tell me to call you Sam." her mother said with a chuckle.

Sam groaned in frustration, but decided she better move away from the window since her mom would keep bugging her till she did. The young girl walked in the kitchen, her hair dangling in her face as she tilted her head downward. Though as she passed the counter she immediately stopped. Her teeth began chattering as she rubbed her hands along her arms, her body all of the sudden feeling cold.

 _"It feels like I just ran outside into the cold. Wonder why mom isn't cold?"_ Sam thought.

It didn't take long for her body to start to feel warm again, though she couldn't help but wonder why the strange feeling overwhelmed her. Finally deciding to ignore this thought Sam walked over next to her mother to see how much of dinner she had finished. Her hands gripped the edge of the counter and she adjusted her feet to her tiptoes to push her body upward to get a good look.  
Suddenly, her mom slammed the knife in her hand on the counter, and Sam flinched. Still, she continued to watch her mother prepare their meal; but she was unaware that Pamela was quickly growing annoyed with her daughter's crowding her space.

"Samantha sweetie, why don't you go outside and play till I finish dinner." she suggested with a smile.

The sudden sound of her mother's voice startled Sam, causing her body to jolt a bit. She blinked in confusion at her mother's words. She always noticed that her parents had acted strange around her, sometimes even distant from her as well. Whenever she asked what her mother what was wrong, she would tell her that it was something she would understand when she was older. Snapping out of her thoughts, Sam finally let out a deep sigh.

"Alright mom, I'll go." she groaned.

Sam's mother smiled as she watched her daughter walk over to the coat rack. Sam said nothing as she pulled on her black coat, purple snow boots and hat. She walked to the backdoor; slowly placing her hand on the doorknob.

"That's a good girl. Now run along Samantha." Pamela said before returning back to cooking.

"It's Sam!" she whined.

Sam let out a groan as she opened up the door. She shivered as she felt the cold hit her body, feeling like she did before when she had walked past the counter. She slammed the door behind her before taking a look at her surroundings. She walked down the steps of her house, leading her down to the streets.  
Sam mindlessly listened to the sound of her boots crunching in the snow and watched her breath appear as fog before he eyes. She was bored and upset that her mother had sent her outside without a second thought. Sam never had any friends because her parents had made sure that she was kept as far away as possible from other children. With a frown, Sam decided to head towards the park.  
When she eventually got there, the sound of laughter reached her ears. Sam lifted her head up out of curiosity. To her surprise she saw two kids playing in the snow together. The first child was an orange-haired girl around the age of seven with aqua colored eyes and she wore a blue coat and pants, and a black headband. But it was the other child with the older girl that had drawn Sam's attention.  
He was a black-haired boy with blue eyes about her age. He was wearing a white coat and blues jeans. Sam didn't know why but she couldn't stop watching the boy as he continued laughing and playing in the snow.

Very slowly a smile formed on her lips. She couldn't explain why she felt happiness at the sight of the happy boy playing in the snow. She began to wonder what the boy's name was and if he would let her play with him. At that moment a name started coming to her mind.

Without thinking she slowly muttered the name "Danny."

As soon as the words escaped her mouth, the boy stopped playing instantly. He slowly turned around and his eyes instantly locked with Sam's own. He tilted his head; his mind full of curiosity. He began to wonder who the girl near him was and why he had never seen her before. He even wondered what her name could be. Though to his surprise a name instantly came to his mind.

"Sam." he muttered quietly.

Meanwhile, the orange-haired girl noticed her brother and some unknown girl just staring at each. The older girl frowned with uncertainty, and quickly asked, "Danny, is something wrong? Why are you staring at that girl?"

Sam nearly jumped back in shock; she couldn't believe the name that had come to her mind was actually the boy's name.  
Danny shook his head a bit, and snapped back into reality. "It's nothing Jazz," he replied, "I just noticed she was standing there. I thought maybe she would like to play with us."

Jazz smiled before ruffling Danny's head, much to his annoyance.

"Sure little brother. She can play with us." she said with a smile.

Danny grinned with excitement before running up to Sam.  
But Sam's reaction to the boy's approach was the complete opposite. She began to slowly take steps back in some vain attempt to keep some distance between them. She was suddenly feeling very unsure and nervous. Sam didn't know how to act around other children since her parents kept her away from 'common kids'.  
Danny frowned and slowed his approach upon seeing how nervous the purple-eyed girl was. He didn't how but he could sense she was frightened.

"Hey it's okay. I'm not going to be mean to you." he said with a small smile as he held out his hand.

Sam stared at the friendly gesture, unsure what to do. A part of her wanted to run back home as quickly as possible, but the other part of her wanted to explore this new experience. Finally after a few seconds of silence she took Danny's hand with a small smile forming on her face.

Danny let out a small laugh before saying "My name is Danny. What's yours?"

Sam let her hand slip out of Danny's grip. She resisted the urge to let out a giggle along with Danny.

"My name is Samantha but I like everyone calling me Sam instead." she replied.

Danny's eyes slightly widened when he heard this. He was very surprised that the name that came to his mind turned out to be the girl's name. He even began to wonder how he had known her name in the first place. He decided to push his thoughts to the side and focus back on the girl.  
But before Danny could say anything else, his sister came up alongside him; and having heard the younger girl's introduction, Danny's sister said with a smile, "Sam, huh? Well it's nice to meet you. I'm Jazz, Danny's big sister."

Sam nodded her head toward Jazz with a small smile on her face.

"So you want to play with us?" Danny asked.

Sam nodded.  
Danny's face nearly lit up like a Christmas tree with excitement. He quickly ran away from the two girls and knelt to the ground. He then formed a snowball with his hands, and with a mischievous grin on his face, he quickly got back up and threw the snowball at his sister. The snowball swiftly flew through the air before splattering against Jazz's shoulder.  
She gasped in surprise before hearing her brother's laughing fit. She raised a brow with a grin before forming a snowball in her hands. Jazz threw the snowball as hard as she could in her brother's direction. Danny was quick to notice this before he ducked to dodge the incoming snowball. Sam watch in interest as the two siblings began throwing snowballs back and forth at each other. She had seen snowball fights on TV before but never participated in one.

Slowly, she knelt down to the ground and gently formed a snowball in her hands. Once she had finished, she tossed the snowball at Jazz, managing to hit her in the head. Jazz jumped in surprise before turning toward Sam. Before she could say anything she was hit in the head by a snowball thrown by Danny.  
Sam giggled before making more snowballs to throw. She began running around with the two children as they all threw snowballs at each other left and right. Sam couldn't remember the last time she had been this happy. She wished that this moment of her life would never end.  
Suddenly, Danny threw a snowball at her just as she ran past him; but he had been unaware that he had packed some ice in it too.

The ice-filled snowball smashed against Sam's head, and she cried out in pain. Sam didn't notice how Danny also cried out in pain at the same as her. But the boy also unintentionally fired out a small green ray, and it slammed into a large tree.  
Jazz's eyes widened and she gasped as one of the branches broke off the tree and began to descend, heading right for Sam.

"Sam look out!" she screamed.

Sam looked up and froze in fear when she saw the large branch falling towards her. Her mind was screaming at her to run out of the way but she was too frightened to move. Just when she thought the branch was going to hit her, she felt two strong arms grab her. She watched as her body was pulled out of the way just in time to avoid the branch. She took in quick and shaky breaths as she stared at the branch now lying on the ground. But then curious of who pulled her out of the way, she looked up to see a large black haired man in an orange jumpsuit.

"Dad! Thanks goodness you and mom came!" Jazz said with a sigh of relief.

Sam began rubbing the spot where she got hit by the snowball. She sniffed a bit as her injury stung when her fingers were pressed up against it. Finally she started crying, not only because of the pain but also because of how the tree branch almost hit her.  
Jazz frowned but then she heard more sobbing. She turned around and almost gasped in surprise. She saw Danny in the arms of their mother who wore a blue jumpsuit and had brown hair.  
Danny was crying and telling his mother that the back of his head hurt.  
Jazz was confused by this sight.

"That's odd. Danny is acting like he was the one hit with that snowball, even though he was never hit," Jazz thought.

She glanced over to the tree branch and frowned when she saw the burnt marks on the end. She knew exactly what caused that tree branch to fall but she didn't have the heart to tell anyone. Not even her parents. With a sigh she decided to go help her mother comfort Danny.  
Sam continued cry even when she rubbed frantically at her eyes to wipe away the tears.

"Hey, kid, don't cry. You can tell your parents that you were saved by Jack Fenton who is me!" Danny's father said in an attempt to cheer her up.

"Speaking of parents, Jack, we better find this little girl's parents. They're probably worried sick." Danny's mother said with her voice full of concern.

She managed to calm Danny down enough where he was now only sniffling. She smiled at him and gently ran her fingers through his hair. She never could stand to see her son crying.

"Good point, Maddie!" Jack replied back, "I'm glad I have such a smart wife."

"And that's why I love you, sweetie." Maddie said with a loving smile on her face.

Once Sam had managed to stop crying, Danny's parents managed to get her to tell where her parents were. Sam frowned as the Fentons began to walk with her back to her house. She glanced down at the ground as she imagined how upset her parents might be. She never did once look at Danny; she kept her eyes glued to the ground throughout the entire walk.  
Finally, after what seemed ages to Sam, they finally reached the front door to her house. Jack took his black-gloved hand and knocked loudly against the door. It opened up to reveal Sam's mother and father.  
Sam nearly cringed when she saw her father was home. Her father named Jeremy actually never liked the idea of her going outside at all.

"Oh, Samantha, there you are! I was worried sick at how long you were gone!" her mother said as she pulled Sam into her arms.

"She was in the park with our children." Maddie explained.

"Yeah and a giant tree branch almost fell on her! Luckily, I pulled her out of the way just in time!" Jack proclaimed.

Both of Sam's parents turned pale when they heard what had almost happened.  
Sam glanced up at her father, and saw he was trying to hold down his anger towards her.

"Well I hope she wasn't any trouble." her father said with a fake smile.

"No, it was the least we could do. Well I suppose we should be heading off now." Maddie said as she placed her hand on her chest.

"But if you see any ghosts you should call us." Jack added.

Jazz groaned upon hearing this.  
Both of Sam's parents stared at the jumpsuit-clad man in confusion.  
Even Sam was a bit confused on why Jack told them to call him and Maddie if they see ghosts.

"Well... um. May we ask why we must do that?" Sam's mother asked, taking a few pauses.

"Well it's because we Fentons are professional ghost hunters! We hunt ghosts for a living! So if you see any ghost scum around these parts we'll gladly blow them to bits with our high-tech Fenton ghost hunting gear!" Jack exclaimed happily.

Sam's parents smiled nervously. They were unsure how to react to this.  
Sam, on the other hand, was interested in the idea of chasing after ghosts. It actually sounded fun to her. She glanced over at Danny and Jazz.  
While Jazz seemed annoyed by the topic Danny actually looked frightened.  
Sam suddenly felt afraid, too, but she didn't know why. Her thoughts were interrupted when her mother began pulling her into the house.

"Well, it was nice meeting you! Bye!" her father said quickly before slamming the door.

Sam backed up into the corner with a frown on her face.  
Her father quickly turned around to face her with a glare plastered on his face.

"Samantha Manson! You know you're not supposed to be in contact with the other kids!" he scolded her.

Sam frowned; she hated being scolded by her father. She glanced over at her mother who only staring at her with a disappointed frown. Sam began wishing she could disappear from existence to avoid those looks on her parents' faces.  
Finally, she couldn't take it another moment and ran up the stairs to her room. She ran over to her bed and threw herself on it with a few sobs. She grabbed a pillow and hugged it against her chest. She could hear her parents now arguing about whether or not she should be allowed outside again.  
They were also complaining about the Fentons. They found the idea of ghost hunting ridiculous and they considered Jack Fenton an idiot.  
Sam threw the pillow that she was hugging over her head in an attempt to block out her parents bickering. As her thoughts began to stray away from reality; she began to think about Danny.

"I wish I could see him again." she said out loud to herself.

Just then she felt a cold chill enter her room. She pulled the pillow off of her head and sat up on her bed. She carefully looked around the room, wondering why it became so cold all of the sudden. She gasped when she heard something fly past her.  
But when she turned, she saw only her curtains gently swinging side to side. She began to think she was imagining things until she heard the noise again. She was starting to get frightened as she looked around the room. At that moment, her teddy bear hit her from behind.  
She yelped in surprise and nearly fell off the bed. Sam looked at the teddy bear and picked it up. She stared at it in confusion until the teddy bear was pulled out of her hands and began floating in the air. Sam backed up against her headboard of her bed as the teddy bear began flying in circles around her. Soon enough more of her toys began flying around her, frightening her even more.

Sam pulled her bed covers over her head in fear. She knew that the only thing making her toys fly around the room was a ghost. But among the fear she could also sense happiness. This made Sam very confused since she knew that she was feeling anything but happy at that moment. That meant the happiness she was feeling had to be coming from the ghost that was currently haunting her room. She wondered why she could sense the ghost but for the moment she just wanted the ghost to stop haunting her.  
Gathering her courage she pulled the bed cover off of her head.

"Look ghost. I know this makes you happy but it's making me scared! So stop it right now!" she demanded.

The toys continued flying around the room for a few seconds before suddenly stooping and dropping to the ground.

"Wait, you can sense me?" a voice asked.

Sam's eyes widened; she had recognized that voice. At that moment Danny appeared in front of her out of nowhere. Only this time his appearance had changed. She saw his hair was now white and his eyes green. His clothing attire was now a black jumpsuit with white gloves and boots. Sam was speechless as she stared at Danny. He was floating above her bed and staring at her with a confused look.

Finally Sam managed to say "Danny, you're a ghost?"

 


	2. A Ghostly Friend

Chapter 2

Danny's eyes widen in shock and fear. No one ever had been able to recognize him as a ghost. Out of panic, he quickly made himself turn invisible, hoping it would trick Sam into thinking that he left.  
Sam crossed her arms and stared at the spot Danny was at. She knew he was still there since she could still sense his presence.

"You might as well come out. I know you're still there." Sam said with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

Danny let out a disappointed whine before becoming visible once more. He let himself fall down on Sam's bed with a small thud.  
Sam looked at Danny as he sat up on her bed and crossed his legs. He gave her a sheepish grin before creating a small green, glowing ball in his hands. Sam watched Danny toss the strange ball back and forth between his hands in a playful manner.

"So..." Sam started, "You didn't answer my question about you being a ghost."

Danny didn't say a word as he caught the ball in his hands and made it disappear. He adjusted his body where he was lying on his back, but was still facing Sam. He couldn't help but let out a giggle when he saw Sam was now upside-down from his point of view. Danny made his hand glow green and swung it around much like a child with firework sparklers.

"I'm sort of a ghost but I'm still human too. I can't completely understand it that well. Jazz told me I had these powers ever since I was born. She doesn't really know what to make of my powers either. So I just try to learn as I go along." Danny said as he continued to absentmindedly swing his hand through the air.

Sam watched the patterns he created with his hand, almost entranced by the scene. Though she blinked her eyes to snap back into reality when she realized she had more questions to ask him. She laid down on her back but adjusted her body where her head was facing Danny's. She pressed her head up against his and watched Danny play with his glowing hand.

"So your sister knows that you're kind of a ghost?" Sam asked.

Danny nodded before continuing on "We kept the secret between ourselves. I don't want to tell my parents since they're ghost hunters. I'm really scared on how they would take the news, I don't want them to cut me open to figure out why I have these powers."

He shuddered a bit at the very thought of his parents doing such a thing. He had heard them plenty of times talking about how they wanted to kill ghosts and study their remains to figure what they're like. Even being in a house full of technology designed to kill ghosts scared him deeply. Sam didn't say a word when she heard this. She couldn't imagine how horrible it must be for him to hide that secret from the very people he loves, all because they might not understand what had happened to him.

"Do you know how you got your powers?" she asked.

Danny stopped swinging around his hand and stared up at the ceiling for a few moments. Much to Sam's disappoint, Danny made his hand stop glowing and laid it down on his chest.

He remained silent for a few seconds before replying "No I don't and neither does Jazz. All she told me was that when I was a baby a blue wisp came out of my mouth ever once in a while and I would shiver. She told me my parents never noticed, but she always did notice. She and I didn't realize I had ghost powers till I was three."

Sam sat back up on the bed, prompting Danny to sit up as well.

"You know I'm really surprised your parents don't know you're here." Sam said as let her legs hang off the side of her bed.

"Jazz convinced them that we wanted to play more when actually I just wanted to pull a prank, so they still think that I'm playing with Jazz." Danny replied.

Sam quickly turned her head toward Danny as soon as he said the word prank. She did think it was a little mean of him to scare her like that but the idea intrigued her as well. She never did have much fun since thanks to her parents, so she was willing to partially forgive Danny for what he did. She knew when it came down to it that he was only trying to have some fun.

"Oh so you pull pranks? I guess that I'm not the first person you pranked." Sam said, her voice having a hint of laughter.

"Yeah, it's so funny scaring people with just some small pranks. I don't want to do mean things to them, just small things like how I did with your toys. The looks on their faces are enough for me to continue pranking them." Danny laughed.

He began laughing very hard, accidentally shooting a stray ray. The ray hit Sam's lamp and broke it.  
Both of them cringed when they heard the loud noise created from the shattered glass. It didn't take long for them to hear the voices and the sounds of footsteps of Sam's parents heading for her room. Sam crossed her arms and glared at Danny, only earning an embarrassed grin from him as he nervously rubbed the back of his neck.  
Knowing that it wouldn't be good if Sam's parents found him, Danny quickly flew off of the bed and began heading for the wall so he can phase through it to get outside. But before he phased through the wall, he turned back to face Sam.

"I'll come back to see you. You make a great play buddy." Danny said with a grin.

Sam returned the smile, actually touched by the compliment. She watched as he phased through the wall, excited for the time he would actually come back to see her. Her smile quickly disappeared when her parents entered the room.  
Both of her parents' mouths dropped open as they released a loud gasp upon seeing the broken lamp. Her mother quickly turned on her heel toward Sam, giving her a stern look.

"Samantha Manson! Just because you're upset gives you no reason to start breaking things!" her mother scolded her.

Sam groaned in annoyance. She knew that even though it wasn't her fault; she had to take the blame.

Later that night after having receiving a scolding and a grounding consisting of a whole week without TV, Sam decided to get some sleep. She had changed into a pair of black pajamas. She never was fond of the color pink. Sam climbed over to her bed and slipped underneath her covers. She wanted to go to sleep so she could escape to her blissful dreams as quickly as possible, preferring them over her actual life. She let out a long deep sigh as she pressed her head against her soft pillow, in her arms she tightly clutched onto her stuffed cat. Her purple eyes stared up at the ceiling, awaiting the moment for her eyelids to start drooping close. Only problem was that moment wasn't coming like it was supposed to. Sam let out an upset whine a she flipped over on her side, trying to get more comfortable.

She couldn't figure why she was unable to sleep. She knew in the past she had always fell asleep with ease, but now her body refuse to allow her to get the rest she needed. She let out a few grunts as she tossed and turned a few more times, hoping that she would fall asleep if she did it enough times. Finally when she once more had laid on her back, she begin to feel drowsiness take over her. Sam let out a sigh of satisfaction as she allowed her eyes to slowly close. But when she was about to fall asleep, her curtains began to move. She sat up in her bed as she felt an eerie chill enter her room. She clutched her arms around her stuffed cat tightly as she looked around; her heart racing in fear.

"Danny, is that you?" she asked nervously, hoping it was him.

Her hopes were destroyed when she realized that she couldn't sense anything this time. Sam begin to shake in fear as she heard the sound of something flying past her. She was terrified until finally everything fell silent in her room. She was about to take in a deep breath of relief until just then two clawed hands grabbed her by the shoulders. Sam screamed loudly as she was dragged off of her bed.

Her parents woke up startled upon hearing their daughter's screams. They didn't waste any second jumping out of their bed and running to her room. They reached her door only to find it closed. Jeremy grabbed the doorknob and tried to open the door, only to find it locked. Sam's screams of fear continued fill the air, causing her parents to become more horrified. Sam's father began smashing his body against the door while Pamela kept screaming out for her daughter. With one final smash, he managed to break down the door.

"Samantha!" her mother exclaimed as she ran to her.

Sam was curled up on the floor in a corner. Tears streaked down her face as she sobbed loudly, blood trailing down her forehead.  
Her mother pulled her into her arms and cradled her, doing her best to comfort her.  
Sam clenched tightly onto her mother's night-shirt, burying her face in her chest.

"Don't let the ghosts get me again mom! Please don't let the ghosts get me again!" she kept sobbing repeatedly.

Sam's mother stared up at her husband with a confused yet concerned expression, trying to understand why their daughter was crying about ghosts.

Meanwhile at the Fenton's house, Jazz woke up with a gasp when she heard the sounds of her brother's screams. She quickly kicked her covers off of her and accidentally knocked her bear named Bearbert on the floor. She swung open her door and dashed over to Danny's room. Once there, she found him sitting up on the bed, screaming as loud as he could. Jazz quickly grabbed her brother by the shoulders.

"Danny, stop! It's me Jazz! Danny, it's alright! Listen to me, it's me your sister!" she yelled.

Danny managed to finally stop screaming, blinking as he took notice of his surroundings. He took in quick yet deep breaths; his face was pale with fear. He turned toward his sister, seeing her aqua eyes were full of concern. Finally he just pulled her into a tight hug, letting out a few sobs.

"Shh. It's okay, Danny. I'm here now, it's okay." Jazz quietly comforted him.

She gently ran her hand up and down his back, smoothing out the wrinkles on his pajamas. Danny continued to hug his sister, squeezing his blue eyes shut. Though very slowly, the action was calming him.

"Jazz, I was really scared but it wasn't my fear." he finally said in a quiet voice.

Jazz was confused by her brother's words; she didn't understand how Danny could be frightened and he claim that it wasn't exactly him who felt that. She noticed that he had been acting strange ever since his encounter with Sam. Danny had told her how Sam knew that he had ghost powers but she knew that couldn't be the reason since it had started even before Sam knew. Unfortunately Jazz didn't have long to think about it due to her parents bursting into the room.

"Jazz, what happened? We heard Danny screaming!" Maddie said in a slight panicked tone.

In her hands she tightly clenched onto the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick, which was only a gray baseball bat with the label Fenton on it.  
Jack was holding onto a flashlight and making sure he was slightly hidden behind his wife.

"Was it ghosts?!" Jack asked.

Jazz let out a frustrated sigh, she knew with how obsessed her parents were with ghosts, figuring she could probably never tell them about Danny's ghost powers.

"It was nothing mom and dad. Danny just had a nightmare. Isn't that right, Danny?" she replied.

Danny let go of his sister and quickly nodded his head. He didn't want to make his parents suspicious. Jack frowned, allowing his shoulders to slouch.

"Ahh, but I really wanted to fight a ghost." he said.

Maddie gave Jack a small glare, prompting him to say "Oh right, sorry you had a nightmare, Danny. Though don't you worry I'm sure when you go back to sleep that you will have a nice and sweet dream this time."

Maddie smiled in approval at her husband's words, she knew he loved the kids as much as her, there's just times he tends to focus on the ghosts more than the family.  
Danny didn't say a word as his mother came over to him and kissed him on the forehead, telling him that'll be all better. He smiled slightly, watching his parents return the smiles before leaving the room. Jazz was satisfied that she had succeeded in comforting her brother. She got off the bed and was about to walk away until Danny grabbed her wrist.

"Jazz, don't leave me! Can you please sleep with me tonight?" he begged.

Jazz was shocked by this but she knew that Danny was terrified to be alone after experiencing the fear that had caused him to scream. Silently she nodded her head and made Danny move over to the side of his bed. She laid down and slipped her body underneath the covers.  
Danny without any second thoughts hugged her body and rested his head on her shoulder.

"Thanks, Jazz." Danny said with a grateful smile before closing his eyes.

Jazz couldn't help but smile at her brother. She wanted nothing more than to see him happy. She glanced at his sleeping form one last time before closing her eyes and allowing herself to enter slumber as well.

The next morning, Sam rubbed her tired purple eyes. She was sitting down at her mirror-dresser. She lifted up her bangs to examine the bandage on her head. Sam cringed as the fear she felt from last night entering her once more. She remembered seeing the long and deep cuts on her forehead, the blood making it's way down her forehead to the rest of her face. She bit her lip, trying to block out the memory of what created those cuts in the first place. Sam didn't even want to imagine what would have happened to her if her parents hadn't reached her in time. Her purple eyes remained fixed on the bandage, remembering the memories that have been constantly playing in her head like a broken record. She kept staring at it until she heard knocking on her window. Out of panic she quickly brushed down her bangs, hiding the bandage on her forehead.

The knocking on her window got louder and continuous the more seconds passed by. As Sam walked over to her window, she wondered who could be knocking on her window in the first place till she felt a familiar presence. She pulled her curtains open, only slightly surprised when she saw Danny in his ghost form, floating outside the window. She unlocked the window's hatch and swung it open.

"Danny, what are you doing here?" she asked.

"I told you I would come back to see you. I thought maybe you could come out and play again. I really want you to come to this pizza arcade with me." Danny replied.

"I can't, Danny, my parents won't let me out of the house after what had happened yesterday." Sam said with a frown.

She didn't like that her parents wanted her cooped up inside the house. She could never understand her parents' motives.

"Well..." he started, "They don't really need to know. With my ghost powers I can easily sneak you out of the house."

Sam was about to open her mouth to object but then she began to think about it. She figured she could go with Danny and come back to her house without her parents ever knowing she was gone in the first place. The more she thought about it, the more it excited her. She had never tried sneaking around her parents; though she welcomed the idea.

"Alright I'll put on my coat." she finally replied with a mischievous grin.

Danny smiled happily, quietly waiting for Sam to get ready.  
She grabbed her coat off her bed and quickly slipped it on. Once she was all set she ran over to the window.  
Danny had Sam hold out her hands before he took a hold of them, tightly grasping them in his. With a deep breath he pulled her out of the window, using all of his strength to hold her up.  
Sam gasped, kicking her feet that were now dangling in the air. She wasn't expecting Danny to try to fly with her.  
Sam wasn't the only one nervous, Danny had never flown with a person before so he was scared of messing up. He managed to swallow his nerves enough to grab Sam by the waist and move her arm around his waist. Once he was sure she had a good grip, he took off.

Sam's eyes widened in amazement as they flew over Amity Park. She loved the site of flying over the snow-covered rooftops and trees. She held out her arm that wasn't holding on to Danny and began to slowly move it up and down. She felt the pressure of the wind hit a different side of her arm each time she moved it. She began to laugh at this site, making her wondering if birds' wings felt like how she was holding out her arm. She turned back to Danny, noticing how he flew with a smile on his face, his white hair being blown back by the wind. She had to laugh at this, in her eyes Danny almost looked like he was trying to impersonate a comic book hero.

Danny glanced at Sam with his green eyes, confused on why she was laughing but somehow knew it was because of him. It didn't take long for the building of the pizza arcade to finally come into view. They both landed on the ground near the front doors. Relieved to see no one saw them, Danny changed back to his human form.

"Come on let's go. I got enough tokens for both of us." Danny said as he grabbed Sam by the hand and pulled her along.

Inside the building they were greeted by the loud beeping, zapping, and ringing sounds of the arcade games along with the scent of pizza in the air. Sam stared at the many blinking lights of the arcades of machines, her mouth wide open in awe. She found it overwhelming at how many choices she had and hoped she could try them all.  
Danny kept leading her by the hand till he finally found his favorite arcade game. Filled with excitement he placed enough tokens in the machine for him and Sam to play before grabbing one of the joysticks.

"Sam, this game is called Space Invaders, you fly in space ships and have to get rid of alien fleets." he explained, "You use the joystick to move and push the button to blast at the ships."

Sam nodded her head in understanding before placing her hand on the joystick and button. Before she knew it the game started. The two of them frantically pushed their respective buttons, making their ships weave back and forth to avoid getting hit.  
Danny stuck out his tongue for a moment due in focus while Sam leaned closer to the screen. The two didn't say a word to each other, only the sounds of button clicking and joystick moving could be heard besides the surrounding sounds of the other arcade games. The two managed to make it all the way up to level five because of their teamwork.

As they made their way through level six, Sam heard Danny say _"Watch out for the asteroids!"_

Her eyes widen when she saw a giant asteroid head for her ship. Quickly she jerked the joystick to the left, making her ship barely dodge the obstacle.

"Thanks, Danny." she said.

When those words left Sam's mouth, Danny instantly froze. Not even when his and Sam's ships got shot down, causing the game over screen appear fazed him.  
Sam raised a confused brow at Danny. She only told him thanks and he instantly froze. It seemed forever to Sam that she and Danny just stood there till finally he turned toward her with the look of shock.

"Sam... I didn't say anything." he said, taking a nervous pause.

Now Sam's body froze in shock as well.

 _"What, but I could have sworn I heard him say something."_ she thought to herself.

At that moment Danny jumped a bit back from Sam; his blue eyes fixed on her.

"I-I heard you talk. Though you didn't move your mouth!" Danny exclaimed.

Sam stared in disbelief at this. She couldn't believe that Danny had heard her thoughts. Then she thought back when she heard Danny's voice to tell her to watch out for the asteroids. Danny claimed that he said nothing, meaning that she had heard his thoughts as well. She walked up to Danny, looking up at his confused face. She wanted to comprehend what it meant to hear Danny's thoughts.

 _"Danny, can you hear me?"_ she thought, testing to see if she wasn't imagining things.

Danny swallowed a lump in his throat before replying with his mind _"Yeah Sam, I can hear you."_

Sam ran her fingers through her hair in shock. She and Danny could communicate to each other through their minds. She grinned with excitement, so many ideas entering her mind all at once.

"Danny, we have to try this out more! Who knows how many more things we can do!" she said, slightly squealing.

At first he said nothing but it only took shortly for him to see many possibilities on how to use their connection for fun. Soon enough he began grinning with excitement as well. They couldn't think of a better way to test out their connection than to pull a small prank.  
Danny quickly hid before changing into his ghost form. He turned invisible and flew over to the soda fountain.  
Sam walked over to the counter, doing her best to hide her mischievous grin. She got the food attendant's attention before pulling some money out of her pocket.

"Uh can I get some soda?" she asked.

"Sure kid." the attendant replied.

The attendant grab a cup and was fixing to push one of the buttons.

 _"Okay Danny push the orange soda button."_ Sam told him.

Danny quickly pushed the button, causing orange soda to start coming out.  
The attendant jumped back a bit, startled that the machine started making orange soda come out. Danny moved away just before the attendant reached out to touch the button. The attendant pushed it a few times, seeing that it was working properly. With a shrug he went back to what he was doing.

 _"Alright now the root beer."_ Sam quickly commanded.

Danny followed orders and pushed the button for the root beer.  
The attendant let out a startled gasp when he saw the machine was pouring out soda again. But just like last time when he checked the button, the machine was working just fine.  
Danny and Sam did their best to suppress their giggles to avoid getting caught. They kept up the prank using many different soda combinations, making the attendant freak out.  
Finally unable to take anymore, the attendant slammed the dripping plastic cup with different sodas in front of Sam.

"Here kid! Just take it! Keep the change!" he yelled before running away screaming.

Danny turned visible once more and finally released the laughter he held back for so long.  
Sam let out a small laugh before taking a sip of the drink the attendant had left her.

"Hmm, a mixture of sodas doesn't taste bad at all." she said.

Danny changed back to normal, his laughter starting to die down.

"That was so funny! I don't think I ever laughed so hard." Danny said as he placed his hand on Sam's shoulder.

"Well it was a bit mean of us to scare him like that but his reaction was funny." Sam replied.

 _"But the best part is that we can talk through our minds."_ she said with a grin.

 _"I know and I'm the one that has ghost powers! Come on, let's see what else we can do!"_ he exclaimed.

Throughout the rest of the afternoon, the two pulled pranks together and won many fun games. Though they considered none of it possible if they hadn't discovered their telepathic link with each other. Because they had so much fun with it, they didn't think about how they could have felt what the other had felt during the events that transpired the day before.  
Sam finally looked down at her watch, frowning when she saw it was time to go home. With a sad sigh she had Danny fly her back home. She frowned as she watched the trees and rooftops pass by underneath her once more, she didn't want to go back to being cooped up in her room.  
Danny could feel how depressed Sam was about going back but he decided not to say anything, figuring she wouldn't want to talk about it.

They reached Sam's house within a short amount of time, the window still open from when she left. Very carefully Danny set her down on the window sill.  
Sam didn't say a word as she pushed herself off the sill and into her bedroom, her feet firmly planting against her floor. She turned back to Danny and smiled before hugging him tightly.

"Thank you, Danny. I had a really fun time." she said.

Danny hugged her back, even he was sad to leave her.

"Hey maybe I can come back tomorrow and we can do more fun stuff?" he suggested.

Sam formed a huge grin on her face, she loved the idea of her sneaking out of the house and having fun with Danny by using their telepathic connection with each other.

"Yeah and since we speak through our minds. I can tell you when the coast is clear to get me without my parents knowing." Sam stated, feeling proud of her new plan.

"That's great Sam. All this would be impossible if hadn't discovered we could read each other's minds." Danny replied.

Both of them let out small laughs, hardly being able to wait until they could see each other again. Unaware to both of them, Sam's father actually overheard their entire discussion from the other side of the door. At first his eyes widened in shock before he narrowed them. Silently he pulled a cellphone out of his pocket and dialed in a number. He held up the phone to his ear, listening to it ring for a few seconds before someone answering it.

"Yeah it's me. I called to tell that it finally happened." he said in a stern tone.


	3. Leaving

Chapter 3

Sam was bubbling inside with so much excitement. She had discovered that she shared a telepathic connection with her new friend Danny Fenton. They both made a plan to use this to their advantage so they can sneak past their parents and hang out together. Sam ran back and forth in her room, her boots smashing down on the floor. Sam had never felt so much excitement before, in fact she couldn't even remember the last time she ever felt so excited. She was about to send a telepathic message to Danny to tell him it was okay to pick her up until she realized that she was forgetting her hat. Sam quickly ran out of her bedroom and ran down the stairs. She was almost to the bottom until she heard her parents talking. Curious on what the discussion was about, Sam slowed down her pace. Very quickly she walked over to the nearby wall.

Sam firmly pressed her back against the wall. She held her breath as she peeked her head around the wall but not enough to get spotted. She could clearly see that the discussion was upsetting her mother due to the frown she had on her face.  
Her father on the other hand had a stern expression on his face, showing he was very serious about the discussion.  
Sam pushed some of her hair behind her ear and leaned forward as far as she could.

"We can't do this to her! She's only a little girl!" Pamela pleaded.

"You know we have to. We gave them our word that we would give her to them if this happened!" Jeremy replied in a strict tone.

"She's only five! Can't we wait till she's older?" she continued to plead.

"No! It has to be done now! Pamela they have the power to strip us of our finances!" he replied, his tone remained unchanged.

"She's our daughter!" Sam's mother yelled.

"You know better than I the real truth. Now this discussion is over! I have already called them! So no matter what you say, she's going!" Sam's father said, his voice rising with each word.

Sam let out a shocked gasp out of shock. She was in so much shock that she lost her balance and fell out of her hiding place. She landed hard on the floor, letting out a small groan. Sam shook her head; her black hair swinging around her face as she did so. Once she gathered her surroundings again, she looked up to see her parents staring down at her in surprise.

"Samantha sweetie, how long were you there?" Pamela asked with a nervous smile.

"I uh..." Sam started but she was too frightened to finish the sentence.

Her father glared down at her before letting out a frustrated sigh.  
Sam watched as he whispered something to her mother.  
Sam's mother frowned; she took her white-gloved hands and wiped away a few tears that threatened to come out.  
Sam was beginning to get worried by her parents' actions. Even though they acted distant from her, she knew that these actions were not normal for her parents.  
Her mother didn't say a word as she walked over to Sam and helped her stand back up. Her fingers lingered a bit on her daughter's shoulder before slowly moving them away.

"Samantha, I need you to pack your things. Only take what you need." she said.

Before Sam could ask why, her mother stood up and quietly walked away. Sam was in so much shock from hearing that discussion. She couldn't believe her parents were sending her away for reasons she did not know. She lowered her head, staring down at her snow-boots before beginning the long trek back to her bedroom. She no longer felt the excitement that was overwhelming her before; she now felt extremely depressed. She made it up to her room, unsure whether to cry or be angry. Sam got down on her knees, pulling out her black roller-suitcase from underneath her bed. Her heart ached in betrayal as she began packing up some of her clothes and even her stuffed cat.

The more she packed, the more her emotions overwhelmed her. Finally she couldn't take it anymore. Sam sat down on the floor and began crying. She cried because she didn't understand why her parents were sending her away. It made her wonder if her parents even loved her. Sam thought about having Danny come over, so they could play and make her forget what was going to happen to her. In the end she decided against it; she didn't want Danny to be depressed about her leaving. But she didn't know that her telepathic link with Danny allowed the other to feel what their counterpart was feeling. Her nose sniffed a few times and she rubbed her arm across her eyes, cleaning away any tears that had escaped her eyes.

While she was upset that she was being taken away from her home; the one thing that made her the most upset was the fact wouldn't get to see Danny again. She couldn't believe the one time she finally made a friend, she was being taken away from him. Deciding that she couldn't delay the inevitable any longer, Sam slowly got off of the floor. She zipped up her suitcase and tightly grasped it's handle. The suitcase's wheels squeaked as she pulled it behind her, making her way to the door. Before she left her bedroom, she turned around and took one last look at her bedroom. She thought about how in the past how she hated that room since her parents kept her cooped up in it so many times, but now she was actually wishing she could be cooped up in her room rather than sent away.

Finally without a word she left her bedroom and closed the door behind her. Very slowly she began making her way down the stairs, a loud bang emitting from her suitcase each time it smashed down on a step. At the bottom of the stairs she saw her parents were waiting for her.  
Sam's mother frowned at the state her daughter was in. She desperately wanted her daughter to stay, wishing that they didn't have to complete their task. She glanced over at her husband, seeing that he had a small smile on his face. She knew that he wasn't fond of Sam, so he was happy to finally have an excuse to get rid on her. When she thought about her own feeling toward Sam; she had mixed feelings. On one hand she loved her daughter deeply and would give anything to keep her, on the other hand she was annoyed and frustrated that Sam wasn't the daughter she always pictured having. She always thought she would have the typical little girl for a daughter; a girl that loves the color pink and dreams about being a princess; Sam was nothing like this.

Despite her thoughts, her mother knew that she could do nothing from preventing her daughter from being sent away.  
Sam reached the bottom of the stairs and stopped in front of her parents. She refused to look up at them to give them her eye-contact. She was too angry and depressed at the fact they didn't want her to do that.  
This didn't faze her father; he could actually care less about how she felt. The only thing on his mind was that he could finally get her out of his life.

"Look on the bright side, now that she isn't going to be living with us, we can turn her room into a bar." he said to his wife quietly.

Pamela glared at him, causing him to take a step back nervously.

"I mean a Barbie room! Yes a Barbie room that can be a collection room for the Barbies that are sitting in the attic. I mean a bar is very inappropriate." Jeremy replied quickly in an attempt to calm his wife down.

Sam's mother raised a brow in confusion; she had sold all her Barbie dolls and Sam didn't own any of the dolls since she despised them. That left her to wonder who's Barbie dolls were sitting in the attic. To get rid of the awkwardness that now filled the air Jeremy ushered his family out of the house and into the car without a word. Sam clung her fingers to the edge of her car seat, mindlessly kicking her legs. She was doing whatever she could to take her mind off of the current events happening to her.

She squeezed her eyes, blocking out the sound of the car engine starting. She felt the car began to move, reminding her how she wouldn't be returning. With a sigh she leaned her head against the window, opening her eyes to watch the snow fall as they drove off. Sam watched as the snow-covered buildings passed by the farther she was taken away from her former-home. Seeing this reminded her of when she and Danny had went flying to the pizza arcade. She remembered how happy she was, having the kind of fun she had never experienced before. She felt like crying, knowing she'll never experience that fun again. She closed her eyes, wondering how Danny will react to the news of her being gone. The one thing she hoped for was that he wouldn't be too depressed and would be able to continue on happily with his life.

Sam wished that the drive had last longer but in at least half an hour, they had arrived at their destination. Her boots crunched in the snow as soon as she stepped out of the car. She glanced up at the building that she now stood before. She saw her parents had taken her to a place called Axion Labs. She was confused by this until she heard the car trunk slam shut. She turned around just in time to see her father handing her suitcase to her. Sam grabbed the handle of it without saying a word; she knew it would be useless to ask her parents why they had taken her to a lab. Her heart raced as her parents lead her inside the building's door. Once inside they made their way through the long and bright hallways, heading for a destination unknown to Sam. As they walked she noticed the employees staring at her. This made her feel uneasy so she tried to ignore the fact they were all staring at her.

Finally they made it to the end of the hallway where there was a single brown door. Sam's father opened it up to reveal a waiting room. Though once inside, Sam gasped in shock at what she saw. At one side of the waiting room, sitting in the red chairs was Danny and his family.  
Danny looked concerned and worried as he stared down at the floor.  
Jazz was running her hand up and down his back with a concerned and worried look on her face as well. She glanced over to the doorway and gasped loudly when she saw Sam.  
This prompted Danny to look up too and even he was shocked to see his friend there.

"Sam?! You're here too?!" he exclaimed.

Sam opened her mouth to reply, but at that moment the door to the office opened up.  
An African-American with black hair and a mustache wearing glasses, a blue sweater-vest with a white shirt, black pants and shoes, and a white lab-coat emerged from the office.

"Ah I'm glad to see you're all here. I hope you don't mind but I would like to talk to Samantha and Danny alone in my office. Rest assured I will talk to you all later, but I would like to know a few things about these two first since I'll be working with them." he said with a friendly smile.

"It's Sam." she muttered under her breath, annoyed that she was called Samantha again.

Jazz gave Danny a small hug before allowing him to get up and enter the office.  
Sam was hesitant about entering the office; she didn't want to talk to a person she didn't even know. She thought about running back to the car till she was nudged forward by her father. She glanced back at him to see he was giving her a strict glare. With a loud sigh and her shoulders slumped, she entered the office.  
Both she and Danny began looking around at their new surroundings. There was shelves full of books, a board with news articles and pictures talking about the supernatural, and a single desk with computers and a few chairs.  
The doctor sat down at the desk, intertwining his fingers together and placing them on top of the desk.

"Why don't you both take a seat? Oh how rude not to introduce myself, my name is Maurice Foley." he said.

Danny quietly sat down in own of the chairs. He frowned when he saw Sam glance around the room nervously. He could sense how scared she was. Thanks to their telepathic link, Danny knew Sam was scared of her new surroundings because her parents were going to leave her there. He felt angry that Sam's parents were abandoning her, but there was nothing he could do to stop it. He gave Sam a small smile, hoping that it would help calm her down a bit.  
Seeing Danny smile made Sam a little less nervous; a part of her glad that she was wrong about not getting to see Danny again. Seeing there was nothing better to do, Sam sat down in the chair next to Danny.

"Alright now according to your parents, Samantha, you and Danny seem to share a telepathic connection. Is this true?" Maurice asked.

Both Danny and Sam turned pale upon hearing this, they had no idea that Sam's parents knew about their telepathic connection.  
Sam bit her lip nervously when she realized that either her mom or dad must had heard her talking to Danny that day.  
Danny was worried that Sam's parents might have discovered about his ghost powers and told his parents.  
Seeing both of the children were scared by his question, Maurice cleared his throat.

"Perhaps I should explain why you're both here. We here at Axion Labs study the supernatural. The fact you, Samantha, might share a telepathic connection with a ghost is intriguing. I've been asked to study you both to get an idea how your bond works." he explained.

Danny nervously gripped the arm of his chair before asking "Did you tell my parents about my ghost powers?"

Maurice could understand why Danny would frightened by that thought. Even he knew telling two ghost hunters that their son was part ghost was not a good idea.

"No." he replied, "Your parents think we have brought you here to help you to study about ghosts so you would have an easier time fighting them if you become a ghost hunter. Your sister is the only one that knew the truth; she's pretty smart for her age."

Hearing this caused Danny let out a deep sigh of relief, he was glad that his parents still knew nothing about his ghostly side of him.  
Sam glanced down at the floor. Though she could feel Danny's relief; she was still nervous. She didn't like the idea of being left by her parents so she could be studied like a lab rat. The idea deeply frightened her.

"Danny, we'll be working with you on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. As for the other days, you will get to stay with your family. Samantha, we'll be working with you every day. You're going to be living here at the lab. It'll give us an idea how powerful your connection with Danny is." Maurice explained.

"It's Sam. I hate being called Samantha." she replied bitterly, now despising the name even more because it was the one her parents always called her by.

Maurice was bit surprised by Sam's tone, though he partially blamed himself for telling her how she was going to live there without even taking her feelings into consideration. He had tried asking her parents if they wanted a schedule similar to Danny's but they refused it. Jeremy told him that it necessary for her to stay at Axion Labs at all times. Maurice wanted to think about it more but he decided to push the thoughts aside for now to focus on Danny and Sam.

"Alright I'll call you Sam like you wish. Now Danny and Sam, I'm going to run a few tests to see if you do indeed have a telepathic connection. First I'll start with the hearing test. I will tell each of you a word but the other must say the word that was spoken to the other." he said.

Both Danny and Sam nodded their heads in understanding.  
Seeing they both understood the test, Maurice whispered the names of colors to Sam where Danny couldn't hear. Once it was done he had Danny tell him what he had told Sam. He was only a little surprised when Danny gave him the correct words. He switched it up by whispering numbers to Danny and asking Sam what he had said. Once again he got the correct answers when Sam said the numbers that were spoken. The next test he did was the sight test. He got out some flash cards and explained how he was going to have one of them close their eyes. The one with their eyes open must look at the card given to them while the one with their eyes closed must tell what's on the card without seeing them.

Just like before they took turns with who saw the flash cards and who had to have their eyes closed. In the end they were both able to tell what was on the flash cards without having to see them. The final test was the senses tests, Maurice had both Danny and Sam close their eyes. He explained how he was going to take a small needle that wouldn't hurt bad and see how they react. When they both had closed their eyes, Maurice gently poked the needle at Sam's hand. Upon doing this he saw both of the children's hands on the same side jolt in pain even though it was Sam he had poked the needle with. He poked the needle in Danny's arm, seeing they both reacted to it despite only one of them getting poked with a needle. That was when Maurice knew that the two children did indeed share a telepathic connection with each other.

"Well your connection is strong with each other." Maurice started, "I'm actually surprised that it is this strong. Though we can figure that out later, for now we need to both get you settled in."

Danny and Sam nodded before getting out of the chairs. They left the office and saw that everyone is still waiting for them.  
Jack and Maddie kneeled down to Danny's level and hugged him.

"We'll be back to pick you up Thursday Danny." Maddie said.

"Yeah. Be sure to study hard Danny. Heck, maybe you can be my sidekick in ghost hunting when you finish your studies." Jack said as he patted his son on the back.

Danny smiled at his parents, even though they didn't know the real reason why he had to be there, he was still glad that his parents cared for him. Jazz walked over to Danny and hugged him tightly.

"Be brave little brother." she whispered, scared to leave him there even if he was allowed to go home.

Sam frowned at the sight of Danny's family telling him goodbye. She was frowning because her parents weren't like that. Her purple eyes glanced over at her parents to see they weren't even coming over to her. She stood there silently as Maurice after having a talk with the parents, explained that the families needed to go so he have the children settle in.  
Danny's family gave him a last few hugs before leaving the room.  
Sam's parents started to leave but Pamela stopped in front of the door. Just then to Sam's surprise, her mother quickly turned around and ran to her. She fell down on her knees and pulled her daughter into a hug. She sobbed loudly as she stroked Sam's black hair.

"Honey get up! You're making a scene!" Jeremy said in a strict tone.

Sam said nothing as her mother's sobs quieted down a bit. Pamela moved back a bit from Sam, revealing the tears streaking down her face to her daughter.

"I'll always love you Samantha." her mother whispered before kissing her daughter's forehead.

Without another word she slowly stood back up. She didn't dare look at her husband as she left the waiting room.  
Sam's father let out a frustrated sigh and shook his head as he left the waiting room too.

"She'll get over it in a few days." he thought to himself.

Sam was still dumbfounded by her mother's actions. So much that she didn't feel Danny lay his hand on her shoulder.  
Danny could tell how shocked and confused Sam was.  
She had thought that both of her parents didn't love her but after that scene it was clear that her mother didn't want to give her up. Though she wished that her mother would have fought for her more if she truly cared that much for her.  
Maurice decided not to say anything about the topic to Sam, knowing that she still knew that Axion Labs was now her home.

"Alright, now that we're done let me show you both to your rooms." Maurice said before leading both of them out of the waiting room.


	4. New Home

Chapter 4

Sam nervously clutched her hand tightly around the handle of her suitcase. She ducked her head down a bit and bit her lip. She was growing uneasy as she was being led through the hallways of Axion Labs, noticing how the employees were staring at her and Danny. Sam knew they were all staring at her because they all knew about her telepathic link with Danny but that didn't make her feel any less nervous.  
Even Danny was feeling nervous from the constant stares he was receiving. He moved closer to Sam and grabbed a hold of her hand in an attempt to ease both of their worries.  
They both glanced at each other, sensing how nervous the other was. Finally after what seemed like ages for walking, Maurice had led the two children to a solitary part of the hallway that had two doors.

Maurice opened up one of the doors to reveal a small room with computers, monitors, a window, and another door.  
Sam saw through the window that there was another room on the other side of the door across from them. She took in a deep breath as she was led over to the door. She glanced back at Danny who was having to wait in the computer room.  
Danny gave Sam a small smile and told her telepathically that everything would be okay.  
Sam nodded before she turned to face the door.  
Maurice opened up the door and ushered Sam inside.  
When she entered the room she saw it was empty for the most part except for a TV, kitchen counter with a microwave, a mini-fridge, and a couch with a few chairs.

She walked further in the room, seeing the window she saw in the previous room was a mirror and that there were cameras almost all over the place. Finally the last things she noticed was a second part of the room that had a bed, nightstand, clothes rack, and a door leading to the bathroom.

"This is your room Sam. Danny has one like this one that is next to yours." Maurice explained as he walked up to her.

Sam dropped her suitcase to the ground and stared at one of the cameras on the wall. She didn't like the idea of being watched and hoped they had enough respect to not put a camera in the bathroom.

"We can get you settled in later, right now I need to show Danny his room." Maurice said.

Sam nodded before following the doctor out of the room. Though right as Maurice opened his mouth they heard the sound of running. All three of them turned to see an African-American child wearing a yellow shirt, green pants, red shoes, glasses, and a red hat running toward them.

"Dad!" the child exclaimed.

Maurice laughed as he got down on the knees and pulled the child into a hug.

"Hey Tucker, glad to see you're here. Guess your mom dropped you off?" he said.

Tucker nodded his head. He let go of his father so he would be able to get up. Once Maurice stood up again, Tucker finally took notice of Danny and Sam. He walked up to them with a smile, lifting up his hand in a friendly gesture.

"I've never seen you two here before. I'm Tucker Foley, my mom dropped me off here so I can visit my dad." he explained.

Sam and Danny glanced at each other before turning back to Tucker. They both didn't find anything wrong with him and liked the fact he didn't stare like everyone else was doing to them. While Sam was still a bit unsure, Danny finally decided to speak up.

"My name is Danny Fenton." he said.

Tucker lowered his hand as he said "Danny huh, that's a pretty cool name. Though I still don't know her name."

Sam nervously bit her lip; she didn't want to make herself seem rude. She took in a deep breath, reminding herself that she would have to get use to the people around her since she would now be living in the labs.

"I'm Sam M... no, just Sam." she said, pausing when she remembered her parents had abandoned her.

Tucker was confused on why Sam didn't want to say her full name but he pushed the thought aside. Maurice explained to his son about how Danny had ghost powers and that Sam and Danny shared a telepathic connection with each other.  
Upon hearing this, Tucker's mouth dropped open in shock. He was amazed with the idea of being able to communicate through the mind. He even found the idea of ghost powers amazing too.

"That's so cool! I got to write all this down on my PDA!" Tucker exclaimed.

Quickly he reached into his pocket and pulled out his PDA.  
Sam and Danny were confused when they saw Tucker holding the strange object in his hand. It wasn't over the fact they didn't know what it was since they had seen them before. It was because they didn't know how it works and couldn't figure how Tucker knew how to operate one.  
Maurice let out a laugh as he patted his son on the back.

"He sure loves his technology. His first baby toy was a one of those learning computers. He played on it for hours." he told Sam and Danny.

"Dad." Tucker whined, his face turning red from embarrassment.

Sam and Danny still couldn't piece together why Tucker had such a love for technology but they decided to ignore it for now.  
After that discussion Maurice decided to show them around more. He not only showed Danny's room, he also showed two testing rooms. One was where they would test Danny's powers to see what they can do and how powerful they are. The second testing room was where they would test their telepathic connection to find out it's strengths and weaknesses. The last thing he showed them was a school room for Sam where she would be taught by a personal teacher.

Maurice glanced down at his watch, seeing how it was now getting late.

"Well I think it's time I got you two off to bed. We got a lot of work to do tomorrow." Maurice said.

Tucker told the two his goodbyes as they were taken to be sent to their rooms.  
As they headed back to their rooms, Maurice explained how there would be different employees taking turns watching them and that if they needed anything to just ask them.  
Both of the children nodded in understanding. When they found themselves in front of the two doors once more, Maurice opened up the door that lead to Sam's room.

"Alright Sam get ready for bed, I'm going to be in the room monitoring Danny's room until twelve A.M." Maurice explained.

Sam nodded one last time before she went into her room. She let out a deep breath as she closed the door behind her, this would be the first night in the lab. She walked over to her suitcase, very slowly unzipping it. She glanced around the room, knowing she was being watched that very second. Once she flipped open the suitcase, she reached in and pulled out her black pajamas.

"I really hope there's no cameras in the bathroom." she muttered to herself, feeling very uncomfortable about changing with cameras in the room.

She held her pajamas in one of her arms as she made her way over to the bathroom door. She opened it up and took a look around inside. She was very pleased to see no signs of any cameras in the room. She stepped into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. Once she had changed into her pajamas, Sam came out of the bathroom. She went over to her suitcase again and pulled out her stuffed cat, finding it impossible to sleep without it. Feeling she was all set, Sam went over to her bed. She pulled back the covers, laying her body down on the mattress before pulling the covers back up. The employee in the monitoring room began flipping switches, shutting off the lights in Sam's room.

Sam's heart began to race a bit that she was now in the dark. She tried to ignore this as she made herself comfortable in the bed. Once she was settled, she closed her eyes, allowing herself to drift to sleep.

Later that night Sam awoken with a groan. Her body was refusing to allow her to get rest again. She sat up, wondering why she was so restless. That was when Sam felt an eerie chill enter her room. Her body stiffened, it was that exact same chill she felt before she was attacked by ghosts that night. Her heart raced in fear as she frantically looked around, hoping she was imagining things. She was about to lay back down till she heard something fly past her. Sam began breathing hard, her memories from the night before rushed into her mind. As soon as she heard the thing fly past her again, she jumped out of the bed and began running for the door.

Just as she reached out her arm and was going to grab the door handle, a clawed-hand grabbed it. Sam turned her head to see a green ghost with razor-sharp teeth, red eyes, two horns, and spikes coming from it's back.  
The ghost hissed as it dug it's clawed-fingers into Sam's arm creating some wounds.  
Sam screamed as the ghost pulled her by the arm, bring her closer to it.  
The ghost stuck it's face in front of Sam's and snarled, revealing it teeth dripping with slime.  
Sam screamed as she struggled to get out of the ghost's grip.

The employee assigned to watch Sam woke up with a startled snort and fell out of their chair. He had fallen asleep while watching Sam and had no idea what was happening. The employee yawned as he rubbed his eyes, allowing his vision to adjust as he stared at the camera monitors. When his vision was finally cleared, he gasped when he saw Sam screaming and struggling with a ghost. Quickly he ran to the door, firmly grabbing a hold of the door knob but when he tried to open it, he discover it was locked. He jerked on the doorknob, trying get the door open as Sam's screams grew louder.

Danny sat up in his bed gasping with his heart racing. He felt fear rapidly rising within him just like the previous night. He looked around his room, trying to figure out why he was so frightened. That was when it clicked in his mind that it wasn't his fear he was feeling, it was Sam's.

 _"Danny, help me!"_ Sam cried out in his mind.

Danny quickly jumped out of bed and summoned a white ring around his waist. In a few seconds he had already transformed into his ghost form. He made his body intangible and quickly phased through the wall to get to Sam's room. Inside he froze in fear when he saw the ghost. Just because he was part ghost himself didn't mean that he didn't find other ghosts frightening.  
Sam was screaming and digging her fingers into the floor as the ghost pulled on her leg to get her closer to it. There was many cuts and bruises all over her body. She turned her head at Danny, staring at him with her pleading purple eyes.

"Danny!" she screamed as the ghost pulled on her leg once more.

She ended up losing her grip on the floor and screamed loudly as she was pulled by the ghost.  
Danny snapped out of his state of fear by the sound of Sam's screams. His green eyes widen when he saw the ghost grab Sam by the neck before slamming her into the ground.  
Sam released a cry of pain, her head sore from where it had made contact with the floor. Her breathing sped up when the ghost snarled and raised it's free hand up in the air.  
Just before the ghost could bring down it's claws upon Sam, it was blasted by a green ray. The ghost shrieked in pain as it was knocked back into the wall. It shook it's head, gathering it's bearings. The ghost lifted it's head to see Danny floating in front of Sam protectively.

Danny clenched his fists tightly as green smoked emitted from them. His eyes were glowing brightly green and he had them narrowed in anger. He snarled as he unclenched one of his hands and made it start glowing green.

"You leave her alone!" he yelled holding his glowing hand out in front of him.

The ghost snarled in anger before lunging at him.  
Danny quickly blasted more rays at the ghost, only for the ghost to turn intangible.  
The ghost managed to turn solid to slam into Danny. The two tumbled on the floor a bit before crashing into the kitchen counter. When Danny tried to get up, the ghost hissed and slammed it's clawed-hands down on Danny's throat.  
Danny let out a choke as his legs began kicking frantically.  
The ghost pressed harder and harder down on the child's neck each second in an attempt to choke him to death.  
Danny could feel his lungs begging for air and his mind starting to turn foggy.  
Sam groaned as she forced herself to her hands and knees. She looked around the room for a few seconds till she grasped her throat, it felt like someone was choking her.

She glanced up, her purple eyes managing to spot the ghost choking Danny. She felt her telepathic link with him was starting to fade, making her worried. Thinking fast Sam ran over to the ghost and grabbed it by the shoulders.  
Because the ghost was too focusing on choking Danny, it wasn't able to turn intangible to avoid Sam grabbing it.  
With all her might she pulled the ghost by the shoulders and slung him against the wall.  
The ghost hissed in pain, the impact creating a few cracks in the wall.  
Danny sat up, gasping for air as he rubbed his neck.  
Sam collapsed on her knees, the pain coursing through her body and the wounds starting to take effect.

Danny squeezed his eyes shut as he forced himself onto his legs once more. They wobbled a bit underneath his weight but he managed to remain standing. Because of their telepathic link, Danny was starting to feel the pain that was coursing through Sam's body. He opened his eyes, revealing their bright green glow once more.  
The ghost snarled and hissed as it began flying around the room, waiting for the right moment to attack. Danny began frantically blasting different rays at the ghost, trying to shoot it down. Unfortunately every one of his attacks were dodged by the ghost causing it to mock him with it's laughter. Danny was unsure on what to do until he remembered something.

 _"Sam, keep the ghost distracted."_ he told her mentally.

Sam nodded her head in understanding; she knew Danny was telling her this telepathically so the ghost won't know what they were planning.  
Within an instant Danny flew at top speeds at the ghost.  
This lead the ghost to believe that Danny was trying to smash into him. The ghost smirked as it held out it's hands, ready to grab Danny the second he makes contact with it's body. Though to the ghost's shock, Danny turned intangible and flew through the ghost. It scratched it's head in confusion, turning around in time to see the ghost child phase through the wall. The ghost was still confused on why Danny had fled the battle but chose to ignore this.

The ghost turned back to Sam, seeing her struggling to stand back up on her legs. The ghost let out a satisfied hiss as it flew toward Sam, intending on finishing what it started.  
Sam made herself back up against the wall, forming her hands into fists and holding them out in front of her to protect herself.  
The ghost got closer and closer to Sam, making her more scared.  
She tried to hit the ghost but the ghost easily caught her fist in it's hand. Sam yelped as she was pulled close to the ghost, her face mere inches from it's face.  
The ghost left out a laugh upon seeing the girl's face turn pale.

Just before the ghost could do any harm to Sam, Danny had phased back in the room. In his hands he held a silver thermos with green circuitry in his hands. Not wanting to waste any time he began trying to open up the thermos. Much to his dismay, he was actually struggling to get the lid off. Danny grunted as he kept struggling to get the lid off, finding it unbelievable that he was struggling with such a thing.  
The ghost heard these sounds of struggle. It let go of Sam and turned toward Danny, confused to see him struggling to take off a lid. Finally it hissed and flew toward him.  
Sam gasped when she saw the ghost was going after Danny again.

"Danny, look out!" she screamed.

Danny looked up to see the ghost heading straight for him. His attempts to open up the thermos were becoming more frantic and panicky.

 _"How hard is it to open a stupid thermos?"_ he thought to himself.

He kept struggling and struggling, still failing to get the thermos' lid off as the ghost approached him. Finally with one last pull he managed to get the lid off. Danny fell down on the ground as a blue ray shot out of the thermos.  
The ray consumed the ghost completely, causing the ghost to begin to shriek in pain. The ghost panicked when it saw it's body was being sucked into the thermos. It clawed at the air, flew at full speed, anything to escape the ray's grasp but to the ghost's avail nothing worked. The ghost let out one last shriek of fear before being completely sucked into the thermos.  
Once the ghost was inside, Danny slapped the lid closed, trapping the ghost inside. Letting out a deep breath, Danny collapsed on the floor and changed back to human form.

Sam wanted to go over to check on Danny to see if he was okay but she was too exhausted. Her body ended up collapsing on the ground too.  
The door to Sam's room finally slammed open, revealing the employee and Maurice. He gasped when he saw the two children lying on the floor with all of their energy drained. He ran over and helped Sam sit up while the employee helped Danny sit up.

"Sam, what happened?!" he exclaimed when he took notice of her wounds.

"A gh-ghost attacked m-me. D-Danny g-got rid of i-it." Sam replied, taking deep breaths of exhaustion a few times.

Maurice was surprised by this. He glanced over to Danny, seeing the young boy struggle to keep his blue eyes open.

"How did he get rid of it?" Maurice asked as he turned back to Sam.

She weakly lifted her arm and pointed at the thermos lying near Danny.

"He used that. Though he had tro-trouble getting t-the lid o-off at first." Sam said, managing to crack a weak smile.

"H-Hey, the thing was h-harder to open up th-than it looks." Danny defended himself, taking in deep exhausted breaths a few times too.

Sam let out a laugh, though she didn't laugh long due to the pain coursing through her body, causing her to groan.  
Danny explained to Maurice how his parents invented the Fenton Thermos, explaining how it was a machine designed to catch ghost. His parents had sent it with him because they thought he would encounter a ghost. He actually found it quite ironic that they ended up being right about that when most of the time they were wrong.

"Well let's get you two fixed up while we clean up the damage done to Sam's room." Maurice said.

The two children didn't object as they were carried away to the health wing. Once there a nurse attended to their injuries. Danny didn't have that much injuries besides a few bruises and red around his neck where the ghost tried to choke him. The nurse gave a few ice-packs to place on the bruises. Sam on the other hand had many cuts and bruises given to her by the ghost. The nurse rolled up the sleeves of Sam's pajamas and started to clean up the wounds on her arms with alcohol. Both Sam and Danny whimpered in pain, feeling the stinging sensation of the alcohol killing the germs in the cuts. Once the nurse finished cleaning up her arms, she got some white bandages and wrapped them around Sam's arms. When she finished that, she repeated the process with Sam's legs and torso till finally almost all the wounds were attended to.

"Alright all that's left is your forehead sweetie." the nurse said.

Sam begin to panic when the nurse brushed her black hair out of the way, revealing the bandage on her forehead. The nurse was surprised to see a bandage already in the spot she was going to check for injuries. Taking her gloved-hand, she removed the bandage. She gasped when she saw the long, deep cuts that lay upon Sam's forehead. Even Danny was shocked to see the injury on her forehead. Even though their telepathic link was weak from exhaustion, Danny could sense Sam's nervousness.

"Hmm looks like this wound isn't fresh, but it isn't old either. Well I'll attend to it just in case." the nurse said.

Repeating the same procedure, the nurse attended to cuts on Sam's forehead and placed a new bandage on the wounds. She gave Sam a few ice-packs to place on her wounds before telling them that she would check back soon. With that said the nurse left the room, leaving the two children alone. Danny glanced at Sam, seeing her lower her head.  
Her black hair hung in her face, hiding her guilty expression. She felt guilty over the fact she had chosen to hide this from Danny. Her body tensed when she felt Danny lay his hand on her shoulder before easing back down. She still felt edgy from that ghost attack.

"Sam... you've been attacked before haven't you?" he said, pausing for a bit to consider whether or not to continue his sentence.

Sam let a deep sigh before confessing "Yes. It was at nightfall, after we had met. The ghost attacked me in the night and began clawing at me. It would have done more than that if the sound of banging on the door hadn't scared it off."

Danny's blue eyes glanced down at the floor. Now he knew why he was frightened that night, he was feeling Sam's fears when she had gotten attacked. It made him feel sick inside that she had gotten hurt and he couldn't do anything about it. He was jolted out of his thoughts when he felt Sam running her hand up and down his back, the action reminded him of how Jazz would comfort him.

"Don't worry about it, Danny. After all you managed to give me the best day after that. Also you had managed to defeat a ghost a while ago, saving both of our lives." she insured.

He lifted his head, seeing her smile at him.

"All I can say is... thank you, Danny." Sam said.

Danny smiled back before pulling Sam into a hug. Even though her entire life had been changed, the least he could hope is to always be there for her. He was her friend and he didn't want to abandon her.


	5. Invitation

Chapter 5

Seven Years Later

Sam who was now twelve years-old groaned as turned over to her side in her bed. Her room walls were now painted a dark-red and she had Gothic posters and furniture. The sound of her alarm going off blared in her ears. Without looking she moved her hand over to the alarm clock and blindly began trying to hit the snooze button. Finally after a few attempts, her hand slammed down on the button, silencing it. She adjusted her body where she was now lying on her back. She grumbled as she forced her body to sit upright, knowing it was time to get up. She blinked her purple eyes, getting rid of the sleepiness within them. Though before she could react, instantly Danny appeared in front of her out of nowhere.

"Boo!" he yelled.

Sam yelped as she fell backwards, causing her to fall of the bed.  
Danny began laughing, his head thrown back as he held his stomach.  
Sam got off of the floor, glaring up at the half-ghost floating before her.

"Ha ha ha. Very funny, Danny." she said sarcastically.

Danny stopped laughing and landed on Sam's bed.

"Ah come on, Sam. It was just a joke." he smirked.

"Yeah and I prefer you didn't do it when I just now have woken up. You know I'm not a morning person." she said as she threw one of her bed pillows at Danny.

He laughed slightly as he let the pillow hit him in the shoulder.  
Now that she was fully awake, Sam walked over to her clothes rack and grabbed a short black tank top with a purple circle on it, a black skirt with green lines and purple socks. When she made her way over to the bathroom, she noticed Danny was following her. She opened the bathroom door and quickly turned toward Danny.

"Don't even think about it." she smirked before slamming the door in his face.

 _"Can't blame a guy for trying."_ he said telepathically with a smirk.

Sam rolled her eyes before changing out of her pajamas and into her clothes. When she came out of the bathroom, Danny had already changed back to his human form.  
He now wore a white shirt with a red circle on it, blue jeans and red shoes. His black hair had grown a bit longer but only in the front where it slightly hung in his eyes.  
Sam walked past him and sat on her bed. She didn't even have to look at him to see him toss her the rest of her casual attire. She firmly caught her black boots in her hands and let the rest fall on her bed.

"Well the telepathic connection is working like a gem." Sam said as she slipped on her black boots.

She put on three black collars, two for her wrists and one for her neck. For the final touch she tied up some of her hair in a ponytail and let the rest hang down. She took in a deep breath as she pushed herself off of the bed and examined her state.

"Well I'll say I'm ready for another day of testing." she said.

Danny nodded before walking over to the door leading out of her room. Over the seven years, Sam and Danny had gotten use to the tests Axion Labs make them go through. Sam had actually grown so familiar with Axion Labs that she could barely remember her old home. She strangely felt odd whenever she was taken out of her room and out of the constant gaze of the cameras watching her.  
Danny's parents still had no idea of his ghost powers, and they still think he's studying ghosts.  
His sister Jazz tends to accompany him more and more to Axion Labs to keep an eye on him, sometimes she even spends the night. Though Danny hasn't seen her lately since she has started attending Casper High. His parents told her that she is already one of the top students there which a very accomplished achievement for a freshman.

When Danny and Sam opened up the door leading to the monitor room for Sam's room, they were greeted by Tucker. He now tend to wear a yellow sweater with a backpack to hold all his tech gear, green pants, a red hat, green pants, and red sneakers.

"Hey guys! You managed to get up in time to go to your testing for the day." he said, looking up from his PDA he held in his hand.

"Tucker, do you really have to constantly remind us when our schedule is?" Danny asked.

"Of course I do since dad made me your guy's time manager and supervisor." Tucker stated proudly.

Both Danny and Sam rolled their eyes. Maurice had decided to have Tucker help out with them three years ago since he saw how close they became as friends.  
Without another word, the three preteens left the monitor room and began making their way down the hallways. Since Danny and Sam had been there so long, they hadn't been getting so many stares from the employees anymore. Even though there is a few that still stare at them, Danny and Sam had grown use to the stares. After a few minutes of walking they finally reached the testing rooms. Danny and Sam waved at each other before going to their separate testing rooms. The rooms they entered was white with mirrors all over on the walls. On the other side of the mirrors where Maurice and some other employees monitoring the test rooms.

Maurice leaned forward in his chair and pressed the button to activate the microphone.

"Alright Sam and Danny, let's start with the telepathic tests before we move on to Danny's powers. So please take a seat." he said.

Danny and Sam sat down in their respective chairs in the room. In front of them was a white desk with a few building blocks, papers, pens, flash cards, and a helmet. Knowing what to do, Danny and Sam placed on their respective helmets to begin the test.  
Maurice glanced at the monitor screens, seeing the images of the two preteens mind and brainwaves appear on the screens. First he had them start with the flash cards where they must both select the same flash card laid at before them at the same time. They had to select three cards for the test.  
With that Danny and Sam started the test. Their motions were in sync as they selected a card before placing them down and selecting another.

Maurice nodded his head in approval as he wrote down a few notes, he could tell that Danny and Sam's bond has grown stronger the older they got. He even figured that soon they might be strong enough to pinpoint their counterpart's location. The next test they had to do was write a series of words on their papers. Maurice would alternate between telling only one of them what the word is and they both would have to write the word down.  
Grabbing the pens, Danny and Sam frantically wrote down the words given to them. By the end of the test, their lists of words matched perfectly, right down to the spelling.

The last telepathic test was where the two had to build a structure with their building blocks and the two structures had to be exactly alike.  
Sam and Danny grabbed a hold of the building blocks and begin to create a small structure. Sure enough when they had finished, they had made two exact structures to each other's.  
Maurice smiled in satisfaction, he remembered back when Danny and Sam struggled with doing and creating everything in sync, now they were naturals at it.

 _"Is it just me or do they keep making these tests more complicated?"_ Sam said as she leaned back in her chair with her arms crossed.

 _"Nope it's just you."_ Danny replied before laughing.

Sam let out a sigh and shook her head with a grin. She would have playfully punched Danny's arm if he was in the same room as her.

"That was great you two! Now let's move on to Danny's powers. Now Danny if you kindly change into your ghost form." Maurice said.

Danny nodded before getting out of his chair. He closed his eyes before transforming into his ghost form. His attire in his ghost form was still the same as it was when he was a child. In fact it surprised him that the jumpsuit had the ability to change with his body, meaning he would never have to worry about outgrowing it. He opened his green eyes and waved his white-gloved hand, showing he was ready for the tests.  
The table and chair was lowered down into a hole in the floor before a floor panel closed over it. Different targets and weapons began appearing around the room.

Danny smirked as he jumped off of the ground, allowing his body to take flight. He began firing ecto-energy balls at the targets, destroying them. A few lasers shot at him, prompting him to make his body turn intangible. He flew around the room, shooting ghost rays at the targets he passed by. Another laser shot at him, but this time Danny managed to create a hole in his body. As soon as the laser passed through the hole, Danny willed his body to form back together to close up the hole. After destroying the last few targets, all the lasers guns began firing him all at once. To counter this, he held his arms out in front of him and created a reflective shield. The lasers bounced off of the shield and head straight back from the weapons they were fired from, destroying them upon contact.

"Alright Danny, now it's time to see how your powers are effected by your telepathic connection with Sam." Maurice said.

Danny nodded before creating a small ecto-energy ball in his hands.  
Sam began to focus on her connection with Danny. She focused her thoughts on making Danny's mind force to command his energy to increase. With much strain from Sam, the ecto-energy in Danny's hands began to grow bigger. The next part of the test the scientists wanted to see if Sam could actually block Danny's powers. Sam focused hard, trying with all her might to force Danny's mind to no longer use his powers.  
The ecto-energy ball was shrinking and flickering, making it appear Sam was actually succeeding at her task but at that moment both Danny and Sam yelled in pain as they held their head in pain.  
Maurice frowned at this result, if Sam tried to control Danny's powers through their connection it caused them a lot of pain due to the fact Sam was trying to manipulate Danny's mind to her choosing, something very difficult to do since their minds are both strong because of their connection.

He remained silent for a few seconds before saying "Perhaps we'll try again next time. You're both done for the day."

Danny changed back to his human form before leaving the testing room and meeting Sam outside. Sam groaned as she rubbed her head, still feeling the pain from last test.

"I swear it annoys me so much whenever they make us do that final test. When are they going to learn I can't control your powers without putting myself in pain?" Sam said in an annoyed tone.

"Hey don't forgot that I end up in pain as well!" Danny pointed out as he rubbed his head too.

Sam didn't have a chance to reply because at that moment Tucker walked up to them.

"Oh good, you guys are done with the testing. Hey, how about we grab a bite at Nasty Burger?" Tucker suggested.

Sam and Danny didn't even have to think about it to accept Tucker's invitation to lunch. They had been allowed outside of Axion Labs as long as Tucker accompanied them. The three made their way through the hallways once more and towards the lab's entrance.  
Tucker had to check out the two with the security guard before they could leave.  
Once outside, Sam stretched out her arms and took in a deep breath.

"Ah it feels good to get out of the labs." Sam said as she lowered her arms.

"Odd, I thought you loved that small dark room." Danny teased.

Sam let out a laugh before shoving him a bit.  
This caused Danny to lose his balance and fall on the ground.  
Sam laughed upon seeing this before helping Danny off of the ground.

"Okay that's enough you two lovebirds." Tucker smirked.

"We're not lovebirds!" Danny and Sam yelled in unison.

Because of the fact they were all twelve, the three preteens had to walk all the way to Nasty Burger. It didn't take them long to finally arrive at the fast-food restaurant.  
Tucker managed to get two burger combos for him and Danny while he got a salad combo for Sam.

"Ah it's nice to get my third meal of the day. Only four more to go!" Tucker said before taking a huge bite out of his burger.

Danny was about to take a bite out of his burger until he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. He turned around in his seat, his body frozen and his blue eyes widening. In front of him stood a Hispanic girl wearing a pink shirt, slim blue pants, and white slippers.

"Hi, are you the ghost boy? One of my friend's dad works at Axion Labs so that's how I know about you." she asked in an innocent tone.

Sam raised a brow when the girl said this.  
Without even speaking Danny nodded his head, his mouth still hanging upon.  
The girl smiled as she placed her index finger on Danny's chin and pushed his mouth closed.

"Are you friends with Tucker? His dad works at Axion Labs." Sam asked.

"Uh no. I'm friends with a much popular crowd. The friend I'm referring to is Valerie Gray." the girl said, a hint of snobbishness in her voice.

Sam managed to pick up on this tone, giving her an idea what kind of girl was before her.

"So do you mind if I sit here ghost boy?" the girl asked as she took a strand of her hair and twirled it around her finger.

Danny quickly nodded his head. He grabbed Tucker's chair which was next to him and shoved him out of it.  
Tucker yelled as he fell on the ground, holding his hamburger over his head to avoid it getting ruined. Sam glared at Danny as he let the girl sit down in the chair Tucker once sat in. She didn't care if Danny was letting his hormones do the thinking for him, she still find it mean that he shoved Tucker down like that.

"So ghost boy, what exactly is your name? My name is Paulina." she said.

Danny rubbed his neck nervously as Paulina leaned closer to him while she batted her eyelashes, revealing her pink eye-shadow.

"I-I'm Danny." he said.

Tucker managed to gather up his meal and sit down next to Sam.

"Danny almost cost me my meal. Though I don't blame him, Paulina is pretty hot." he said.

He glanced over at Sam to see her hand slightly clenched around her cup. She couldn't believe that Danny wasn't seeing through Paulina's act. She could tell based on the fact Paulina talked to him that she only liked him for his powers. Sam narrowed her eyes, wishing she could knock the love-struck grin off of Danny's face. Danny was her friend and she didn't want his heart to get broken by a shallow girl.

"Hmm. Danny sounds like a nice name. Say Danny, I'm having a party this weekend and I love it if you could show up. You could even show off your powers to my friends. So what do you say?" Paulina said.

"Yeah definitely!" Danny exclaimed, causing Paulina to jump back a bit in surprise.

Sam placed her hand over her mouth and coughed loudly. Both Paulina and Danny turned toward her with confused looks.

"Danny, in case you haven't forgotten you're supposed to stick with me this weekend. Maurice wanted to see how we do by performing the tests outside of the Labs." she stated.

"Oh that's right. Paulina, you'll have to invite my friends Tucker and Sam too in order for me to come to your party." Danny explained.

Paulina formed a nervous smile on her face. She glanced over at Tucker and Sam, cringing at the fact she had to invite them as well. She looked over at Danny, she really wanted him to come to her party because the thought of dating someone with superpowers was amazing to her. She wanted to make a move on him before anyone else does so she could get bragging rights that she is dating someone that could almost be considered a superhero if he actually did try heroic acts. With a sigh she decided that sacrifices had to be made if she wanted to be with Danny.

"Sure your friends can come too." Paulina said with a fake grin.

"Sweet I get to go to a cool kid's party!" Tucker yelled happily as he thrust his fists in the air.

"Well I'll see you this weekend Danny." Paulina said, giving him an innocent wink.

She pressed her body up against Danny's and to his shock Paulina kissed him on the cheek. She pulled away with a smile. She slowly got out of her chair and began walking away. She stooped in her tracks to glance back at Danny and wave at him before continuing on.  
Danny took in a deep sigh, his love-struck emotion never leaving his face. He never had experienced a girl hitting on him before but he knew he liked the feeling. He turned toward Sam to see she had her eyes narrowed and her fingers rapidly tapping on the table.

"You had to get me invited to a shallow people gathering." she said, her voice full of bitterness.

Danny blinked his eyes a few times at Sam's words. He shook his head a few times, trying to clear to of the love-dazed fog now clouding it.

"Ah come on Sam you don't know that. After all you have spent most of your life in Axion Labs." Tucker said.

Sam let out an annoyed sigh before she leaned back in her seat with her arms crossed. As much as she hated it, Tucker had a point. She had spent so much time in Axion Labs that she barely knew how people were like, it also didn't help that before that her parents had made sure she was cooped up in the house almost all the time. She groaned upon sensing Danny still in a love-struck nature, though a part her thought that maybe Tucker is right about her misjudging Paulina.

After a few moments of silence Sam said "Alright I'll give it a chance."

Danny and Tucker turned toward each other before giving a high-five.  
Sam began blocking out the sounds of the two preteens talking about how they were getting to hang out with the popular crowd. She grabbed a hold of her fork and began mindlessly stabbing at her salad. A part of her was glad to see Danny happy, she just hoped she was wrong about Paulina for Danny's sake.


	6. Party

Chapter 6

Sam sat on her bed, her legs crossed as she read a book titled "Guide to the Paranormal and Supernatural." Over the years she had been intrigued by ghosts; Danny was partially to blame for that. She was so happy when Maddie had lent the book to her. Originally Danny's mother was using it to keep her knowledge about the ghost world fresh and up to memory so she would always know which actions were called for upon certain situations. It also helped her teach Jack a few things due to the fact he wasn't quite the bright one. Sam's fingers carefully gripped the black-leather clad cover as her eyes slowly scrolled through each word.

The main reason she was reading was to get her mind off of Paulina's party that Danny and Tucker we're making her go to. She constantly reminded herself multiple times about how Tucker was right about barely knowing how people were due to lack of socialization but she couldn't shake the suspicion she had toward Paulina. Sam dug her fingers into her book cover when for the thirty-second time that day she could hear Danny's thoughts about the party. She hated that he was so love-struck and excited about the whole thing that he had forgotten that she could hear his thoughts thanks to their telepathic link.

"Paulina this! Paulina that! Ugh I wish he would put a sock in it!" Sam grumbled before trying to focus on reading her book again.

Her purple eyes scanned down the page, taking note of each word carefully. Finally her eyes came to stop on a section of the page that intrigued her.

"Ghost Zone?" she read out loud.

The word had gained her interest and Sam wanted to learn more. She read how it was theorized to be where all souls go to after they leave the land of the living. She continued to read about how some paranormal experts have claimed that at random moments of time a rift would sometimes appear, granting the ghosts access to the real world. Sam tapped her chin as she thought about the ghosts that had attacked her, wondering if there was a rift near her home. But that still didn't answer her question why the ghosts were always trying to kill her.

"It's as if they know something." Sam thought aloud.

When her eyes glanced back down at the book she noticed a beginning of a paragraph that actually talked about some sort of machine. Before she could read any further and learn more about the odd machine, the sound of knocking on her door interrupted her. Sam groaned in frustration before slapping her book closed and placing it back on the bookshelf. She made sure her black boots stomped upon the ground as she made her way over to the door, trying to burn off some frustration. With a firm grip on the doorknob she swung the door open with an annoyed look on her face. Her purple eyes widened a bit when she saw the person at her door was Jazz, Danny's older sister.  
Jazz now wore a black sweater, blue pants, aqua headband, and black slippers. She jumped back a bit from the door, surprised at how suddenly and quickly the door opened up.

"Uh hi, Sam." she said as she waved nervously, noticing the pre-teen before her was very annoyed.

"Oh it's just you." Sam grumbled before walking away from the door, "I thought it's usually your brother who you visit."

"Well I tried but he simply sent me away, saying that he needed to practice acting cool for some party." Jazz explained as she entered the room.

"Of course. Why am I not surprised?" Sam sighed as she sat down on her bed.

Jazz carefully looked around Sam's room, she never had seen much of it due to the fact she visited Danny's room. Though she had to admit he has gotten where he doesn't want her in his room so much as he did when he was younger. She carefully took off her backpack that was stuffed to the brim with books and laid it down on the ground before taking a seat in one of the chairs in Sam's room.

"Do mind if I do some of my school work? I figure I can do it to pass the time until Danny feels like talking." Jazz asked.

"Uh yeah. Sure do whatever." Sam said without looking at Jazz and waving her hand, only partially having paid attention to her question.

A small frown formed on Jazz's face when she saw this.

"Okay, Sam, thanks to my many studies I learned it's unhealthy to keep bottled in frustration and anger." she said.

Sam quickly turned her head to face Jazz; her eyes narrowing slightly.  
Jazz was a little bit unnerved by this but she kept her ground. She wanted to be there for both Sam and Danny since she figured they needed an elder figure to rely on. Danny couldn't turn to his parents without revealing the reason they were told he had to go to Axion Labs was a lie and Sam had no parents to turn to. Jazz had decided when she was eight that she had wanted to take on this responsibility. At first she wanted to wait but when she saw that Maurice was more interested in Danny and Sam's telepathic connection rather than the two themselves, Jazz had deemed him not an elder figure to turn to but she still considered him a kind man.

"My personal life is none of your business." Sam hissed.

"It's about the party isn't it?" Jazz asked as she crossed her arms.

"What, you mean the party that has got me torn about my friend's happiness and my gut feeling? The fact I don't trust that girl Paulina but I don't have a say so over the fact I barely know how other people act due to being cooped up almost all my life like Tucker told me." Sam snapped.

She took in a deep breath and threw her head into her hands.

"See doesn't that feel good to get that off your chest?" Jazz said with a look of victory on her face.

Sam parted her fingers a bit where one of her eyes could peek through her hands.

"Yet you wonder why people find you annoying." Sam said, partly joking and partly serious.

"Hey! All have you know I have many friends at school!" Jazz quickly replied, a bit insulted by Sam's words.

The black-haired girl had to let out a small laugh at the fact she managed to make Jazz slightly angry. She lifted her head from her hands before brushing away some of her hair that had fallen in front of her face

"Sam, I know you and Danny have been close over the years you've both had to spend together and you're only angry because you're looking out for him. I'm the same way with you guys, to others it may seem annoying or overreacting but it just shows you care." Jazz explained.

She got out of her chair and walked over to Sam's bed so she can sit down next to her to carry out a better conversation.

"Oh so I'm basically turning into you, my worst nightmare." Sam joked.

At first Jazz was going to say something in objection to that statement until she realized that it was just Sam joking. In the past she had to learn after many conversations when Sam is joking or not, back then she always told how Sam was insulting her only for Sam to explain to her she was joking and didn't seriously meant what she said.

"Well you're not a bucket of sunshine either." Jazz joked back.

Sam laughed before replying "I'll take that as a compliment."

The two girls laughed for a bit till finally they had to stop in order to breathe properly. When they stopped Jazz quickly coughed and adjusted her posture, retaining her serious nature once more.

"Sam, even though you don't want Danny to get his feelings hurt." Jazz started, "I think Tucker is right. You should at least give this girl the benefit of the doubt before forming a final judgment about her."

"Oh that, I've already decided to do that." Sam replied.

Jazz blinked in surprise as she raised a brow.

"If that's so then why were you so angry earlier?" she asked in confusion.

"Hey you would get annoyed if you heard non-stop thoughts about Paulina. A few hours, sure I can handle but three days having to listen to his thoughts almost none stop can be headache inducing." Sam answered, gesturing her hand toward the direction of Danny's room.

When Jazz heard this she was trying to force back her laughter that threatened to come out. She figured Danny had forgotten about how Sam could hear his thoughts, making her find the whole situation hilarious.

"Okay that makes sense." she said as she continued to resist the urge to laugh.

Sam was about to open her mouth till she sensed Danny leaving his room, leaving to go to the party.

"Well I guess I have to go to the shallow people gathering." Sam sighed as she got off of her bed.

"I'll still be here. I'm spending the night here." Jazz explained.

Sam nodded before she headed out the door. Once outside of her room she could see Danny and Tucker waiting for her.

"Good we're all here because I'm ready to par-ar-ty!" Tucker shouted.

Before Danny could walk away Sam grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Hey, Danny, after this sha… I mean party, think you can tone it down with the lovey-dovey thoughts. I understand Paulina is your first crush but there's only so much I can take, especially after having to hear it for three days." Sam said.

Danny face turned blood-red when he remembered that Sam could hear his thoughts.

"Ergh… uh.. Sorry about that, you didn't hear everything did you?" he said nervously.

"Danny, I have your daydream thoughts about you being a macho-tough guy that is cooler than everyone else and easily sweeps Paulina off of her feet memorized with how much you thought about it." she replied with her arms crossed.

"Gah! Those thoughts were supposed to be private!" Danny yelled in a panicked tone; his fingers digging into his hair.

"With this telepathic connection, none of our thoughts are private." Sam smirked before walking away.

Danny began to follow her; lowering his head where he was staring at his feet; muttering how he can find the telepathic connection annoying at times.  
Sam couldn't help but crack a smile when she heard Danny's muttering. It made her slightly glad she is at least getting a small laugh before having to be bored for the next few hours.

After being driven to their destination by Maurice, the three pre-teens found themselves standing before Paulina's house. Both Danny and Tucker was shocked at the large, luxury house that stood before them, they had never seen anything like it.  
Sam on the other hand wasn't really impressed. Back when she still lived with her parents, they were extremely wealthy all thanks to her ancestor who made the first toothpick holder. Even if Sam had only got to live the wealthy lifestyle for five years that was enough time to make her quickly bored of it. In her mind, rich people really didn't have many interesting things to talk about. All they had was things they could buy with their fortune and gloat about it later.

"Come on let's just get this over with." Sam said with a hint of annoyance.

She firmly placed her hands on Danny's and Tucker's backs before pushing them all the way to the door.  
Snapping out of his shocked state, Danny quickly rang the doorbell and eagerly waited for the moment he had to hold off for three days. He jumped back a bit when the door instantly swung open to reveal Paulina wearing a pink sweater that exposed her shoulders, a blue skirt, and white pradas.

"Danny, I'm so glad you made it!" she squealed.

She instantly wrapped her arms around him tightly; her eyes squeezed shut in happiness.  
Danny swallowed hard in an attempt to quiet down his rapidly beating heart.  
Sam cracked a grin when she sensed how nervous Danny was. She knew about him practicing for hours in his room how to act at this party so he wouldn't blow it with Paulina. Her smile began to disappear when she started to examine Paulina's appearance. Her clothes didn't give Sam a strong idea on what her personality was like. The only thing it made Sam decide was that she hated Paulina's taste in clothing.

Paulina removed her arms from Danny and stepped to the side to allow him inside. Danny and Tucker managed to walk in but when Sam tried to walk in Paulina blocked the doorway with her arm.

"Oh I made a silly mistake; I forgot to get Dr. Popinski soda for my party. My party guests love it and will be truly disappointed if it's not there. Can you run by the store and get it?" Paulina said in a fake sounding innocent tone.

Sam didn't bother holding back the frustrated growl that escaped her mouth as she walked off.  
Paulina smirked as she entered her home and slammed the door behind her.

 _"Ha, what she doesn't know is that Dr. Popinski soda is impossible to find in stores. So I'll be able to get with Danny without the worries of competition."_ she thought.

In the house music was booming with colorful lights flashing all over the room, different teens shouted and cheered as they danced to the rhythm. Danny had to hold back his laughter when he saw Tucker instantly join the fray and dance like crazy, earning some strange looks from the other guests. When he turned his attention away from Tucker he noticed that Sam was not present. He was about to use his telepathic connection to find her until he felt someone lay their hand on his shoulder. He turned his head and came face to face with Paulina's.

"Hey, Danny, why don't we sit and talk about ourselves?" Paulina asked with a sweet smile.

Before Danny could even reply, much to his shock he saw the pre-teen girl had already lead him over to the couch.  
Paulina gave a small seductive smile as she urged the boy before her to sit down on the couch by simply pushing her index finger against his chest. She was about to sit down and start flirting with him until she heard the doorbell ring.

"Oh guess that's more guests, be right back, Danny." Paulina said with a grin.

She got up and made her way to the front door, wanting to quickly invite the guest in so she could get back to Danny. When she opened up the door her mouth dropped open in shock; there standing before her was Sam holding a bottle of Dr. Popinski.

"Found your soda, turns out there was a guy on the side of the road selling them." Sam said as she held out the bottle.

Paulina nervously smiled as she accepted the bottle, she hadn't expected the pre-teen goth to actually find the soda. She snapped out of her shock when she saw Sam start coming into her house. Thinking fast she quickly slammed her arm across the door way, denying the goth girl access.

"Oh silly me I forgot one more thing, I need Chili's Fiesta Chips. They're super delicious and spicy chips that are great for any party. Can you get them?" Paulina asked.

Sam let out an annoyed grunt before walking away once more. She was starting to get suspicious of the Hispanic girl's intentions since that was the second time she was sent away to fetch a party item that was supposedly forgotten.  
Paulina let out a sigh of relief before slamming the door closed. She had given Sam the name of a chip brand that was no longer sold due to the restaurant going out of business. She was about to head back to Danny until she heard the doorbell ring again. A little worried she opened up the door. She let out a small scream of surprise when there before her was Sam once again holding a bag of chips she had asked for.

"Yeah the pizza deliveryman came by and it turns out the pizza restaurant has a new deal where you can purchase these chips as a side order. Luckily he had a bag on him that I was able to buy." the pre-teen goth girl said with a small smirk.

She handed Paulina the bag and tried to enter the house only to be stopped by the rich pre-teen once again. Sam let an annoyed growl escape her mouth. Now she was certain that Paulina had no intention of letting her in the house and she was sending her on wild goose chases to try to get rid of her.

Back with Danny he was starting to get bored of waiting for Paulina. He tapped his fingers on his left hand on top of the couch's armrest while he used his other hand to prop up his head. He was finally snapped out of his boredom when he saw an African-American girl with black hair, green eyes, wearing a yellow tank top and socks, an orange headband and skirt, and white shoes approaching him. Danny immediately straightened up his posture, wondering why this girl was headed his way.

"Mind if I sit next to you, Danny?" the girl asked while gesturing her hand to the empty spot on the couch.

Danny's blue eyes widened in surprise, the girl knew his name before he even had the chance to introduce himself. Without even knowing it he nodded his head in reply, prompting the girl to sit down next to him.

"How do you know my name?" he asked.

The girl upon hearing this question laughed as she rubbed her neck in embarrassment.

"Oh yeah I guess I should have mentioned that detail. Paulina probably mentioned me when she met you. I'm Valarie, my dad works at Axion Labs." she replied.

Upon recalling the memory, Danny did remember Paulina mentioning her name.

"Yeah I do, well I guess it's nice to meet you, Valerie." he replied back while shaking her hand.

Before Valerie could reply, Tucker had ran up to them. His movements were a bit fidgety and in his hand was a large cup of soda.

"You guys have got to try this drink! It's called Mountain Endurance and it's great! Whoo!" Tucker yelled in happiness as he pumped his free hand into the air while trying to still dance to the fast paced music.

"Hey wasn't that drink banned for having too much caffeine and sugar?" Valarie asked with a worried frown.

"It sure is but some shady guy wearing a black coat gave it out for free!" the tech pre-teen exclaimed.

But at that moment his movements began to slow down and a exhausted look formed on his face. His body wobbled around a bit before finally without warning he passed out on the ground.  
Danny cringed upon seeing this before kneeling down to much sure his friend was okay from the caffeine and sugar rush he had experienced.

"Just like the commercial." Valerie muttered under her breath.

Meanwhile Pauline was panicking because every item she had sent Sam to find ended up easily being found. She bit her lip while her left eye slightly twitched. She had ran out of ideas for impossible errands to send the pre-teen before her on.  
Sam couldn't stop herself from revealing the smug smirk on her face upon seeing the Hispanic girl's appearance. She had enjoyed finding items that she was never meant to find and see it drive the rich pre-teen insane from the fact. Seeing Paulina was too distracted, Sam finally seized the opportunity to dash into the house with a grin.  
Paulina blinked her eyes and shook her head rapidly, finally realizing what had happened.

"No!" Paulina snapped.

With her teeth clenched into a snarl she managed to grab Sam by the collar of her tank top.  
Sam chocked out as she felt her body get jerked back by her shirt. The jerk had left her in a temporary daze, unable to focus on her surroundings. By the time she had finally regained her senses she had found herself being tossed in a closet underneath the stairs.

"Just stay in here until Danny is my boyfriend, the you can come out Goth girl." Paulina said in a stern tone before slamming the door close.

Sam crossed her arms in grumpiness.

"It's a shallow person gathering I said, she's a spoiled brat I said. But did anybody listen to me? No!" she grumbled to herself, angry that she was right about Paulina only seeing Danny as another object and not a person.

Paulina straightened out her hair to make herself look decent again and put a smile on her face. She didn't want to look terrible for the person she had her sights on. But before she could find Danny she was stopped in her tracks by a blond haired and blue eyed football jock that wore a read sports jacket with white sleeves, a black shirt, blue jeans, and white shoes.

"Paulina, you've been avoiding me through out the whole party! Me, the Amity Park Junior High Football Quarterback!" the jock exclaimed while waving his arms around.

The black-haired girl sighed as she rubbed her fingers against the temple of her forehead.

"Dash, for the last time I'm just not into you anymore. There's someone much cooler than you and I intend on making him my boyfriend." she said in a annoyed tone.

Dash squeezed his hand into a fist a said in a bitter tone "It's that Fenturd isn't it?"

"For your information his name is Fenton and yes it is him." Paulina replied back with a smug smile.

"You're dumping me for some loser that hangs out in a lab most of the time that has lame ghost hunter parents. I don't get it, what does he got that I don't?" Dash said with his eyes narrowed.

He instantly leaned back when he saw the Hispanic girl immediately hold her index finger in front of his face.

"One word, power." Paulina smirked.

With that said she lowered her hand and walked off.  
Dash was practically grinding his teeth together in anger. He didn't know about Danny's powers so in his mind he had lost his ex-girlfriend to a normal pre-teen. Out of frustration he punched his fist into a wall only to promptly whimper when he heard a loud cracking noise.

Danny had finally managed to awaken Tucker from his sugar and caffeine overdose.  
Tucker groaned as he held his hand on top of his forehead.

"So much sugar and caffeine." he groaned.

All of the sudden without warning his face turned a sickly shade of green and he instantly clamped his hand over his mouth.

Knowing what was happening Valerie jabbed her thumb behind her and said "Paulina's bathroom is down the hall."

The tech lover nodded his head in thanks before darting down the hallway. Much to both Danny's and Valarie's surprise kids ran out of the hallway in a panic, screaming about how horrible the sight and smell was. Danny gave a nervous grin over to Valarie who was laughing at the sight.

"That's some friend you got there." she said.

"Yeah friend." Danny chuckled.

He kept laughing till the word friend dawned in his mind; he had forgotten all about Sam. Using his telepathic connection he had asked her where she was. Much to his surprise he got a grouchy response, telling him how she was locked underneath the stairs. Wasting no time Danny quickly got up and headed for the closet his friend was locked in. It didn't take him to long to finally locate the stairs Sam was telling him about. Grasping firmly ahold of the door knob and unlocking it, Danny swung the closet door open only to be greeted by a pair of purple eyes glaring at him.

"Took you long enough. What were you too lovey-dovey over the shallow girl that locked me in here?" she snarled as she stood up.

Danny was taken back by this reply.

"Sam, I think you're overreacting I'm sure Pa..." he began but got interrupted when Sam spun around where her face was inches away from his own.

"Overreacting?! Danny, she locked me in a closet! I think I warrantee a rant!" she snapped, "I told you not to go to this party since Paulina is nothing but a shallow, selfish, pig!"

Much to the pre-teen girl's shock her friend narrowed his blue eyes in anger.

"Oh and you suddenly decide you're great at knowing what people are like. Last I checked unlike me you were stuck in that stupid lab all the time and even before that you were kept locked away from the world by your parents! So don't act like you know, Paulina!" Danny yelled back, letting his feelings cloud his judgment.

Sam froze upon hearing those words; to her it almost felt like Danny had stabbed a knife through her heart. She never liked getting reminded about how pretty much all of her life she was always kept sealed away from the world. She bit her lip, trying to fight back the tears that were threatening to come forth. Danny was were friend and she couldn't believe he was trusting a girl he barely knew over the one person that had grew up with him. Out of anger she shoved her hands against his chest, knocking him down on the floor harshly.

Danny squeezed his eyes shut when his head had hit the wall. He rubbed the spot where he had hit, feeling it sting in pain. He saw Sam rubbing her head too since she had also felt the pain thanks to their connection. With sense literally knocked into him; Danny finally had a clear enough mind to feel the waves of sadness and anger Sam had that he was blind to from his own anger. His face softened and with regret he lowered his head, now feeling sad as well.

"Sam, I'm sorry. That was mean of me to say." he said without making eye-contact due to his growing guilt.

Sam let out a deep sigh, only replying "Let's just go home, Danny."

The black-haired boy agreed, no longer feeling the joy he had when he came. As he headed for the door he ignored a stunned Paulina who was surprised that he was leaving her party.  
Sam clenched her teeth tightly; she wanted to get revenge on Paulina for locking her in the closet.

She walked up to her and lied "Paulina, I forgot to mention I get sick in closets. So I had a little accident on some pretty pair of heels."

Paulina gasped in fear, exclaiming "Those were my favorite heels!"

She dashed into the closet to make sure they weren't ruined beyond repair. Once inside she raised a brow in confusion, seeing that the heels were fine and there wasn't any sign of an accident. Before it could click in her mind what was happening Sam slammed the door closed and locked it.  
The pre-teen Goth couldn't help but giggle to herself as she walked away from the closet, hearing Paulina's cries and yells for help.


	7. The Commercial

Chapter 7

Sam groaned as she laid on her back, using her remote to flip through the channels on the TV. She narrowed her purples eyes both in boredom and annoyance. Out of curiosity, she reached through her psychic bond to check on Danny, only to be greeted with the preteen's annoyed thoughts. Her teeth clenched slightly as she reached up and ran her hand through her black hair upon receiving this reaction. Ever since the party incident that happened a few weeks ago, the two would encourage each other to respect the privacy of their thoughts when they wished to not be disturbed.

"Probably texting Paulina again. Still can't believe that girl, Valarie, helped him get that ice queen's number." Sam grumbled to herself.

She sighed as she changed the channel once more, causing the channel to change to the image of a blood-red moon with bats flying around it. Sam raised a brow in interest when she saw the moon transform into a red glass orb with strange glowing energy in it. The camera pulled back to reveal a man with pale-white skin, dressed in red and black circus ring-leader attire.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, had you ever want to see your deepest, darkest fears come to life?" the man asked as a large evil grin grew on his face.

Sam was intrigued as she continued watching the commercial, seeing the camera turn toward red curtains that swung away to reveal a skeleton juggling skulls. The skeleton threw the skull toward a clown that looked normal but then his eyes turn red as he grinned revealing razor sharp teeth. The clown lunged for the camera, causing it to spin for a few moments until it settled on the spotlight shining down upon a figure wearing a hooded black cloak. The figure slowly turned toward the camera before without warning pulled out a scythe and swung it down, filling the screen with nothing but darkness. But a few seconds later, a red glow appeared to reveal the circus ring leader from the beginning of the commercial.

The preteen girl couldn't help but be amazed and intrigued by the commercial she was witnessing. Wanting to share it with her friend, she quickly reached out through her telepathic bond and urged Danny to turn on the television. Much to her happiness instead of ignoring her, he agreed to do so. Sam couldn't help but grin, wondering what Danny would think but then all of the sudden she felt a wave of dizziness wash over her. She groaned as she pressed her hand to her forehead, finding her thoughts beginning to get slightly fuzzy.

"Then come on down to Circus Gothica and witness true horror today!" the man finished with a laugh before finally the commercial ended.

Once the commercial was over, Sam raised a brow when the feeling faded away. She didn't understand why she had experienced dizziness only to easily overcome it easily within seconds. It even confused her especially since she was feeling perfectly fine up until the moment she contacted Danny.

Before she could think about the strange feeling any further, Sam found herself interrupted by Danny exclaiming _"Hey that place looks like fun. We should totally go there today!"_

 _"It definitely peaked my interest. Only problem is to try to convince Mr. Foley to let us go. He wasn't too thrilled when he learned what I did to Ms. Shallow Popularity back at the party."_ she replied as she firmly crossed her arms.

The young girl could sense a bit of frustration from her friend at the nickname she had given Paulina before he finally responded _"Ignoring that last part. Anyways we could always have Tucker help us out. With his tech smarts, he should be able to easily pull a few strings so we can see the show together. After all it would be nice to go to an event and for us to both have fun this time."_

Sam couldn't help but smile slightly. While she was still annoyed that Danny still stuck up for Paulina all due to his crush on her, she was happy to know that he was concerned for her especially after the argument that broke out between the two of them during the party. She was awakened from her thoughts a few moments later when she saw the door to her room open up to reveal Tucker and Danny.

"Hey, Sam! Danny just told me how you suggested we should all grab a bite at Nasty Burger." the African-American preteen stated.

Sam's mouth opened in shock before she slightly narrowed her eyes at Danny while he grinned sheepishly back at her. Thanks to their psychic connection, she could easily tell that he had lied to Tucker to convince him to help them get out of the lab. While a part of her really was mad at Danny for lying to their own friend, the other part of her understood his actions. The preteen girl wasn't sure how the tech-loving nerd would react if they were to tell him they wanted to go to see a bizarre circus they had just discovered.

"Yeah, do you think you can convince your dad to let us go? Sam asked.

"Sure but..." Tucker started, taking a pause as he glanced down at the PDA in his hands, "According to the schedule, the staff really wanted to run through more testing. Some of the scientists think they have might finally figured out how you can safely suppress Danny's powers this time."

"But they say that all the time." Danny groaned in annoyance, recalling all the times he and Sam both collapsed on the ground while crying out in pain.

The tech-nerd bit his lip nervously as he glanced between the two preteens. He couldn't deny that even he was unhappy from all the test sessions when he would witness the Axiom Labs staff constantly try to find ways for Sam to suppress Danny's powers, even though the end results only ended with the both of them in pain. He mulled over his choices until finally he came with a conclusion. With a sigh he agreed to not take his friends to the test session and try to get them out of the lab unnoticed.

"Knew you would see our side, Tuck." Danny commented with a grin as he patted the preteen boy on his shoulder.

"Yeah, just put this flash-drive in the computer for me so I can shut off the main entrance's security camera footage. If my dad were to find out I helped you guys skipped out on a test session, I would be facing some serious grounding." Tucker stated as he handed the preteen boy the device.

Danny rolled his blues eyes as he accepted it by clutching it tightly in his hand. Wasting no time he quickly turned invisible and took off for the main entrance. Fortunately he managed to reach his destination within seconds thanks to his ability to take shortcuts by phasing through walls. The young boy held his breath as he flew over to the main desk, being careful not to alert the male receptionist who was busy taking a call. Danny bit his lip as he quickly jabbed the flash-drive into the information port. His eyes glanced over at the receptionist to see the man continued to pay no attention to the computer screen, prompting Danny to release a sigh of relief without thinking. The preteen's heart raced in fear when the receptionist instantly spun toward him upon hearing the sigh but because he was invisible, the receptionist had failed to see he had turned where the half-ghost's arm ended up phasing into his chest.

A few minutes later Sam and Tucker arrived at the entrance, wondering why Danny hadn't returned to walk with them. They both knew he had accomplished his task since Tucker was able to access and disable the main entrance's security camera from his PDA. Sam tried to reach out to him through their psychic bond in order to get answers but the only thing she got in response was panic and confusion. The two continued to wonder what had happened to their friend until they were, without warning, startled by the male receptionist who had slammed his torso on top of his desk.

"Sam! Tucker! You guys got to help me!" the receptionist shouted in panic.

The two preteens glanced at each other nervously, unsure why the receptionist they barely talked to was demanding their help. Sam narrowed her eyes at the man to see the expression of panic and pleading never left his face, no matter what kind of faces of suspicion he got in return. She remained silent as she studied his face, wondering why he was reaching out to her and Tucker of all people. At that moment she noticed the man had bright green eyes that seemed to glow. She felt those eyes were familiar until all of the sudden, through Danny's bond she felt not only the confusion and panic from before, but also pleading as well.

Sam gasped before exclaiming in shock "Danny?!"

"Yes, who else would you think would be able to connect to your mind?" the receptionist replied with annoyed huff as he crossed his arms.

Upon hearing this Tucker's mouth dropped open as Sam was doing her best to stifle her laughter.

"Wait... really? Exactly how did this happen?" the tech nerd asked.

Danny sighed with a grumble, explaining how when the receptionist turned toward him upon hearing him sigh his arm had phased into his chest and much to his shock his body got absorbed into the receptionist's, allowing him to take control. He continued to explain how he had never experienced that ability with his powers before but he had also never considered touching anyone while he was intangible either, leading him to believe he possibly had the ability all along but just never used it until now.

"But now I don't know how to get out!" he finished as he threw his hands in the air.

"Sounds like the typical overshadow ability. I think I remember my dad mentioning how ghosts have the ability to take over people's bodies. You must have accidentally triggered that ability when you phased into the receptionist's body." Tucker commented.

"Yeah, Tuck, that's great and all but that doesn't tell me how to get out!" Danny shouted, almost to the point of grinding his teeth together.

The African-Amercian preteen was about to reply until Sam suggested Danny simply try phasing out of the body with the shrug of her shoulders.  
The half-ghost instantly thought about objecting the idea until he realized that during his panic he never considered the option. He glanced over at the goth girl to see the smug smirk forming on her face, already knowing that thanks to their bond she already knew he hadn't done the option. Seeing he had nothing to lose, Danny took in a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut in focus. Within seconds he went flying out of the receptionist's body at top speeds.

"Hey I did..." he started to proclaim in happiness but because he wasn't paying attention by looking at his friends, the moment he made his body become tangible he ended up smashing against the wall.

The preteen groaned as he fell to the floor, causing more pain to throb throughout his body. He rapidly blinked his blue eyes, finding his entire world spinning as his two friends helped him to his feet while trying to help him out of the main entrance doors despite him stumbling along the way. Once the three preteens left the area, the desk receptionist sat up with a dazed look on his face as he looked around, trying to remember what had happened to him.

Later that day the three preteens had finally reached their destination at the fast-food restaurant. Both Danny and Sam glanced guiltily at each other, knowing that it was time to reveal to Tucker the real reason they wanted to leave the lab.

"Okay so we'll grab a bite to eat and then go back to the lab, should be simple." the tech nerd commented with a grin.

Danny rubbed the back of his neck nervously as he said while taking nervous pauses between a few words "Actually, Tucker... we... we... sort of.. lied... to you."

Not willing to let her friend completely take the fall, Sam explained how she and Danny in reality wanted to go see Circus Gothica and they had lied in order to more easily convince him to sneak them out of the lab.

"It really looks fun, Tucker. Danny and I were just dying to go see it but we just weren't sure how you would have reacted or you would have even said yes." she finished with a frown.

Tucker lowered his brows as firmly crossed his arms across his chest before replying "You guys are being ridiculous. If it really means that much to you to see this circus, of course I would have snuck you guys out regardless. You didn't need to act all sneaky and lie to me. We been pals since we were kids, just know I've always got ya guys' backs."

Sam couldn't help but smile in response, now considering it silly that she and Danny were trying to keep secrets from their close friend in the first place. Without another word the two preteens left Tucker behind who had agreed to cover for his friends since he had no interest in seeing a circus he had never heard about and also for he wanted to order food from his favorite fast-food restaurant. As they made their way to the circus, Sam glanced over at Danny to see him beaming in excitement. She was glad to see this but then she paused when she realized something she had never stopped to consider.

Deciding to get answers, the goth girl asked "So, Danny, what made you interested in wanting to go to Circus Gothica?"

Danny glanced over at the preteen girl, opening his mouth to answer but instead remained silent as his brows furrowed together. He squeezed his eyes shut trying to search his mind for an answer. But no matter how much he searched he was unable to come up with a reason for why he so desperately wanted to go to the circus.

Wanting to give his friend some form of an answer, the preteen boy shrugged his shoulders as he replied "It just looked interesting, I guess."

Sam frowned slightly at the answer she had received. Not only could she sense the confusion emanating from the half-ghost's mind, she also found it strange why he was determined to see the circus yet couldn't even remember the reason that spawned such determination. Her thoughts were interrupted when she found herself approaching a large crowd of teens, all dressed in black, standing outside of a circus tent with red and black stripes.

"Wow looks like all sorts of weirdos have gathered here." Danny muttered quietly.

"Oh please, Danny. You're talking to the girl that shares a psychic connection with ghost and grew up in a lab most of her lab. Nothing gets weirder than that." Sam replied as she playfully jabbed her elbow against her friend's ribs.

The two preteens began laughing amongst themselves until all of the sudden a spotlight shined on the entrance of the tent. Sam's mouth dropped open when within an instant an assortment of circus acrobats, clowns, and people with strange and terrifying deformations emerged from the tent whilst cackling and shrieking, prompting screams and cheers to emerge from the crowd. The goth girl was amazed by the sights until she noticed the last one to emerge from the tent was the circus ringleader from the commercial. She watched as he grinned diabolically while holding his staff with the crystal orb high above his head, casting an eerie red glow on the crowd.

"Hey, Danny, there's that guy from the..." Sam started to exclaim but paused when she turned toward her friend.

The goth girl saw her friend was staring at the circus ringleader with his mouth hanging wide open. She waved her hand in front of his face trying to get his attention but much to her surprise he did not react. It seemed that no matter what she did, the preteen boy refused to tear his gaze away from the circus ringleader. Sam was confused by her friend's actions until she felt the dizziness from before overwhelm her once again. She groaned as she used one hand to press against her forehead and the other to brace herself on Danny's shoulder.

The goth girl rapidly blinked her eyes, trying to regain her senses, wondering why she was experiencing another dizzy spell. But by the time she reopened her eyes, much to her surprise she found none other than the circus ringleader standing before her.

"Pardon me, but I couldn't help but notice your friend is very interested in my staff." the pale-skinned man said he tapped his gloved fingers on the crystal orb, "Who might your names be?"

Sam couldn't help but gasp in shock, surprised that Danny had gained the attention of the ringleader. She jabbed her arm against his shoulder against, trying to prompt him to talk but the preteen boy continued to stare at the staff. She rolled her purple eyes with an annoyed sigh, not understanding why her friend why acting so intrigued over a simple staff.

"Sorry about him, my name is Sam and he's Danny. We've both come to see your show. I'm hope you're not mad at him." Sam introduced with a nervous grin.

"Oh nonsense. I can't blame him." the ringleader said with a smile as he threw his arm around Danny's shoulders and pulled him close, "My staff is quite special, it has a way of attracting certain people. Since you're friend is so interested, you both receive free tickets of the show, courtesy of yours truly, Freakshow."

Sam clasped her hands over her mouth, doing her best from screaming in laughter. She couldn't believe how lucky she was to receive free tickets to a show she had just had found out about. But because of her excitement she failed to see the dark grin that formed on Freakshow's face as he held the crystal orb closer to the boy's face, allowing him to gaze deeply into it's energy with not blue eyes but rather emotionless red ones.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, admittedly I had too much fun writing for Freakshow. Might have something to do with the episode "Control Freaks" being one of my favorites, next to "The Ultimate Enemy" of course.


	8. A Deadly Act

Chapter 8

Sam was nearly bouncing in her seat in excitement; she still couldn't believe that Danny managed to snag free tickets to see Circus Gothica. Her purple eyes darted around, examining every single dark and spooky detail. She couldn't help but love the tent's dark interior. She turned toward Danny only for her smile to fade. The preteen frowned slightly when she saw her best friend with his gaze glued to the floor as he ran his hand through his hair. Deciding to investigate, she reached into their psychic connection. Much to her surprise, she was greeted with waves of confusion, just like the ones she sensed when she asked Danny why he was interested in Circus Gothica.

Sensing that the Goth girl was probing his thoughts, Danny sighed in annoyance as he sat up and glared at her.

"Sam, I thought we agreed to respect each other's private thoughts ever since the incident at Paulina's party." he grumbled.

Sam rolled her eyes at her friend's grumpiness before she replied "You don't need to act like that every time I check up on you. I understand your concern, but you need to understand that I do worry about my best friend. Anyways, onto my point, I noticed you looked pretty disturbed yet all I felt was confusion. Why is that?"

The preteen boy slightly flinched at his friend's comment as he glanced down guiltily at the ground. He hadn't meant to snap at her; he just couldn't understand what was going on with himself. Ever since he first saw the bizarre ringleader he has had large gaps in his memory. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember a single second of his discussion with Freakshow. All he could remember is a strange red glow that he seemed mesmerized by. Realizing his friend was still waiting for an answer, he focused his gaze on her and smiled.

"Sorry Sam, I just got a lot of thoughts on my mind. I didn't mean to snap at you about it. Let's just enjoy the show." he replied.

The Goth girl pursed her lips and furrowed her brows; she wasn't completely convinced by the boy's words. But before she could think about it any further, red spotlights began shining in the center of the stage. Within seconds, a burst of smoke appeared and out from the spoke emerged none other than Freakshow. The crowd cheered and screamed in joy as the ringleader took a few bows. Sam was practically beaming, but she couldn't fully enjoy it due to the dizzy sensation that kept washing over her mind.

Deciding to ignore the sensation, the preteen focused her attention on the show itself. Her mouth hung open in awe as she watched the performances from the strange actors. One performer seemed he was able to pull off his own head and start juggling it. Another opened up her cloak and was able to bring the tattoos plastered all over her body to life, sending them to fly around the tent and terrify the audience. Sam was practically grinning from ear to ear. She turned to ask Danny how he was enjoying the show, but much to her shock, he was gone.

Worry began immediately filling her as her eyes searched the tent, searching for any sign of the preteen boy. But no matter how much she searched, she couldn't find any sign of her best friend. Despite the fact she wanted to continue watching the show, the twelve year-old decided to search for her childhood friend. Sam bit her lip in nervousness as she left seat and began searching around behind the bleachers. It didn't bother when she first entered, but she found herself starting to grow fearful of the tent's ominous aura. It reminded her much of the same aura she felt when the ghosts attacked her that night many years ago.

With her worry constantly growing, Sam began calling out Danny's name as she continued to search. She searched and searched, until finally she found herself in the back area. She didn't even get to take a single step when the sound of talking reached her ears. Not wanting to be caught, she quickly ran over to a pole and peeked around it. Once she did this, her eyes widened in shock when she finally found Danny with none other than Freakshow.

 _"Danny, what the heck are you doing back here?!"_ she exclaimed through their telepathic link.

But instead of a response, Sam was only greeted with the waves of dizziness. This deeply confused her, especially now she understood the dizziness she was feeling was coming from Danny's mind. she couldn't understand why the only thing he could feel was dizziness until Freakshow started ranting.

"I don't get it." the ringleader snarled as he paced back and forth, constantly banging his staff in the palm of his hand, "Why haven't I gained full control of your mind yet? I can easily control any ghost's mind by this point of time! Yet why am I struggling with you?"

Sam felt like her heart nearly stopped upon hearing the Freakshow's words. She couldn't believe that the dark clothed man could secretly control ghosts and was seeking to control Danny's mind. Her body shook in fear, suddenly feeling unsafe in the dark circus. All she knew was that she needed to find help so she can rescue Danny. She began to back up slowly, hoping not to gain the ringleader's attention. Suddenly she felt something bump into her back. She spun around to be greeted by the female performer with tattoos all over her body.

The twelve year-old's face immediately turned pale when, before her very eyes, the performer's skin changed to a ghastly green and her eyes glowed red. Sam screamed as the ghost brought to life her tattoos, having them attack the young girl. She swung around her arms blindly as she tried to escape, only to stumble backwards. The Goth girl groaned whilst lifting up her head, finding herself laying before the feet of Freakshow.

The ringleader narrowed his red eyes before demanding "What are you doing back here?"

Many excuses darted through Sam's mind, desperately trying to think of a response to give to the older man.

Finally after gathering up her nerves and without thinking, she blurted out "Why are you trying to control Danny?"

Freakshow remained silent as he tapped his fingers on the crystal with a slight sneer. He carefully studied the young girl, trying to figure what would have possessed her to search the backstage area of the circus. He knew there was the possibility she was searching all locations to find her missing friend, yet he couldn't help but feel there was more to it. That was when he noticed, while the preteen was trying to glare angrily at him, her purple eyes shook slightly, almost as if she was struggling to keep focus.

 _"That girl is experiencing the side effects of resisting my staff. Yet I already know I can't control her because she isn't a ghost, only her friend is. Yet she seems to be acting similar to him."_ Freakshow thought as he stroked his fingers against his chin.

Wanting to get to the bottom of things, he pointed his staff toward Danny and asked "Slave, why exactly is your friend acting as if she's resisting the control of my staff when she isn't even a ghost herself?"

Without any hesitation, Danny immediately replied in an emotionless tone "Sam and I share a telepathic bond. It allows our mind to connect, letting us hear each other's thoughts and feel what the other is feeling."

Upon hearing this, a grin full of dark intent formed on Freakshow's face. Without a word, he turned toward Sam with his grin growing ever so wider, prompting the young girl to cower in fear a bit. He finally understood why he wasn't able to gain full control of the preteen boy's mind. Thanks to their psychic connection, Danny's mind couldn't completely fall under the staff's spell due his thoughts and feelings being connected to Sam's. That connection allowed for a passageway into his mind that actually protected him from the mind control the rest of his mind fell to.

"So basically so long as you two are connected, your friend here will still be capable of thought." the ringleader stated as he took a few intimidating steps toward the young girl, "Only way for him to fall completely under my control is if I had complete control over your mind as well. Of course my staff can only control ghosts so that is out of the question. Yet I wonder..."

He paused as he leaned down toward Sam's face, his grin never leaving his face.

"What would happen if that bond were to break? Like for example, what would happen if you were to disappear?" the ringleader finished in a threatening tone.

Sam gasped as her heart pounded frantically; she knew instantly what the ringleader was implying. She quickly tried to make an attempt at an escape, only to find her path cut off by more ghosts. Her breath quickened as she spun around once more, seeing Freakshow leering at her with an emotionless Danny by his side.  
A few minutes had passed by as the crowd muttered excitedly to themselves about the next act. Within a few seconds, a red spotlight shined on the center to reveal Freakshow.

With a smile and the tip of his hat, he announced "Ladies and gentlemen, our next act will be quite special. A member in the audience has been chosen to participate in our most deadly attraction. So give a round of applause to our lucky little lady!"

The spotlight moved to reveal Sam tied down to a table with a pendulum hanging above her. The Goth girl clenched her teeth as she struggled against her bonds. She glanced over at Danny to see him mindlessly staring at her from the shadows.

 _"Come on Danny! Freakshow said he couldn't completely control you. So you should be able to fight his control! Danny, please snap out of it!"_ she cried out through their bond.

Unfortunately, much to her disappointment, Danny still did not respond. Suddenly her attention was directed toward Freakshow whom announced the beginning of the act. The preteen bit down her lip hard as one of the ghosts finally released the rope, allowing the pendulum to start swinging. Panic filled her as she frantically fought against her bonds. The crowd's whispers of fear and anxiousness was drowned out by her heart constantly pounded in her ears as the blade drew closer and closer with each second. But no matter what she tried, she couldn't break free. Out of desperation, she called out through her bond once more.

Danny tilted his head in confusion as his red eyes stared at the girl strapped to the table. He didn't understand why the girl seemed so familiar to him. As he continued to stare at the girl, he grunted while he held his hand against his head. He felt like someone was constantly calling out to him. He squeezed his eyes shut as the cries grew more and more frequent. Suddenly, some of his memories began to return. The preteen boy frantically began blinking his eyes as the cries began to sound more and more familiar to him. Finally with one last groan, his eyes changed from red back to blue as his memories resurfaced and he recognized the cries belonging to Sam.

The twelve year-old quickly lifted up his head to see the pendulum was inches away from killing Sam. Acting fast, he quickly changed into his ghost form and flew at top speeds. With seconds to spare, he managed to grab ahold of his best friend and turned intangible.  
The crowd gasped when, before their very eyes, the girl strapped to the table disappeared within a blink of an eye. Being so excited by the scene they witnessed, they couldn't but burst into applause and cheers.

Both Danny and Sam took in deep yet frantic breaths upon landing back on the ground behind the bleachers. The two preteens were terrified at the act the ringleader tried to commit.

Out of concern, Sam finally spoke up "Danny, are you alright?"

Unfortunately for them, before the twelve year-old boy had a chance to respond, he grunted as his fingers began digging into his white hair. Within seconds his eyes began flickering between green and red.

"Gragh! That bond of yours has become a real nuisance." a familiar voice snarled.

The Goth girl nearly froze in fear as she spun around to see Freakshow glaring at her with his grip tightening around his staff.

"I had hoped I would be rid of you with my act. Unfortunately I lost control over my slave. No matter, I will break that bond, by any means necessary!" the ringleader snarled.

Using what mental strength he had left, Danny stood protectively in front of Sam, intending to prevent the man before him from laying a single finger on his best friend. All of the sudden, the sound of sirens filled the air. The audience screamed and fled in panic as people wearing heavy combat armor and armed with weapons stormed in the tent.  
Freakshow hissed in rage before he snapped his fingers, commanding his ghost slaves to quickly flee. But before he took off himself, he glanced toward the two children one last time. His red eyes narrowed as he glared at the boy he was unable to add to his circus troop. He didn't know how, but he was determined to stay true to his word of breaking the bond. Without a word, he finally ran off in a flash.

With the dark ringleader no longer seeking to control his mind, Danny panted as he fell to his hands and knees.  
Sam kneeled down next to her friend with a worried frown; she couldn't help but feel guilty for the events that conspired. She believed that if she hadn't convinced Danny to see the commercial in the first place, they wouldn't have been in the situation they're currently in.  
The two didn't move from their spot until they felt a flashlight shine on them. They both lifted up their heads to see a worried looking Maurice standing next to two armored guards.

"Sam! Danny! I can't believe you two came here without permission. Are either of you hurt? Nothing terrible happened did it?" the scientist asked as he quickly looked over the two preteens for any wounds.

Danny groaned as he tried to answer the man's question, his head still throbbed in pain from trying to fight off the influence of Freakshow's staff. He frowned when he could sense the constant worry and guilt emanating from Sam's side of their bond. He easily knew she blamed herself for Freakshow trying to gain control of his mind, but he didn't see it as her fault. Instead he saw it as his own fault; he believed he should have been strong enough to resist Freakshow's control. If he had been able to resist his control, he would had been able to prevent Sam from being placed in a deadly scenario in the first place.

No one uttered a word as the two preteens were escorted back to Axiom Labs. Tucker was shocked when he saw his two friends being led through the hallways surrounding by guards. He wanted to ask what had happened, but his father advised him not to intervene. He frowned before watching his friends disappear from his sight. He didn't know why, but he had a growing feeling that this could be the end of Sam's and Danny's days outside of the lab.

Later that night, Sam lay silently in her bed as she stared up at the ceiling. She found herself unable to sleep due to the events at the circus constantly running through her mind. Each image was burned into memory; Freakshow's dark grin, Danny's emotionless red eyes, the pendulum swinging ever so closer to her with every second. She inhaled deeply as her fingers curled into two firm fists, hoping never to experience anything like that ever again. Suddenly she paused in her thoughts when she sensed a familiar presence.

Without a word, she immediately sat up to see Danny floating in front of her in his ghost form with a guilty look on his face.

"Danny, what are y-" she begin to ask.

But she found herself caught off by Danny immediately hugging her. She was left speechless by this action with her eyes wide in shock. The Goth girl could feel her friend tighten his hug around her whilst a few shaky breaths managed to escape his mouth. Within seconds she felt an overwhelming feelings of sadness and guilt. Sam sighed as she gently wrapped her arms around her friend, knowing those feelings were coming from him. Every single time she tried to comfort him, or reinsure him that he did the best he could in that situation, Danny would only tighten his hug around her.

"I understand you're only trying to make me feel better," he muttered in a broken tone, "but I almost ended up losing you. I don't want to lose you Sam, you're my best friend. Seeing you almost get killed terrified me. It was the same kind of fear I felt when that ghost attacked you when we were younger. I don't know how, but I promise you Sam, no matter what the situation, I won't let anyone try to harm you again."

Sam couldn't help but smile with a few tears breaming in her eyes.

"Normally I would joke to you about how I can take care of myself, but after what happened, I think I would appreciate that very much." she replied.

Danny let out a half-hearted laugh as he rested his head against Sam's shoulder. The room fell silent as the two preteens remained hugging each other on the bed. Neither cared about the silence that surrounded them at the moment, the only thing that mattered was they both were still alive and well.


End file.
